Among the Ancients: Shards of the Past
by Ciloron
Summary: An evil sadistic businessman prepares to unleash his evil plan on the world. In the meantime Yugi recovers from the Ceremonial Battle. And then there is a cultist leader who possesses some kind of magic conjuring shades. What will happen to the gang in their fight to save the world again? Will they succeed now without Atem to help them?
1. Prologue

**Notes: This is my first story :)**

**I wanted to start off with a large story so I give you this story of mine. I hope to update frequently, since holidays are starting.**

**This story will contain some OC's, but it will mostly be about Yugi and the gang.**

**Not going to say anything about pairs, that's about you to find.**

**Lines between "" are normal statements**

**Lines between ' ' are thoughts**

**Enjoy :)**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing, except for my own OC's**

* * *

Prologue

* * *

"Don't be so sorry for yourself, you never stood a chance against me." someone with a deep rasping voice said. "This should teach you a lesson though… oh wait, you won't be getting out of here alive. Sorry for giving you any hope of escaping only to bring it crushing down."

"Please have mercy, save me!" a dark silhouette of a man pleaded in a bright green light.

"You have brought this on yourself; you should never have played that card. It became your own undoing." said the rasping voice. "Besides, I can't stop this process, you sealed your own fate and there is nothing you or I can do about it."

The rasping voice came from a shade it seemed, dressed in worn black pants and a worn grey cloak. His head was covered by a grey hood and his face was unrecognizable by the shadows the hood threw, although you could see the shade enjoying seeing the man squirm.

'Master,' he thought. 'I have done thy bidding; I hope I've made thee proud. Not that this man was really a match for me and with your superior deck…' His thoughts were interrupted by a question coming from his inferior opponent.

"Who are you?" the almost crying man asked to the shade, his voice broke before finishing his question.

The shade chuckled, "Does my name really matter? You won't remember it; you won't know anything anymore within a few seconds. You won't have a body or a mind, you will be nothing!" These last words came out of his mouth as poison being spat from a snake. "But very well, I will grant you this 'last wish' before your inevitable end. My name is Timorós, the Punisher." a deep maniacal laughter arose from his throat as a bright green beam shot into the sky. A lifeless body was all that was left over from the once obviously scared man.

The Punisher stepped closer to the lifeless shell and reached for his hand. "You little idiot, you have something I want. Too bad that you didn't give it to me when I asked. If you just had listened you would have gotten away unharmed. Well, unharmed is a bit overstatement. Let's say relatively unharmed." he muttered while searching through the man's deck. "Oh my, you have five of them, wait, no, six cards? My, my, so you are a thorough one then. Well, were one of course." he chuckled. He stuffed the cards into his left pocket.

'Master, have I done enough to earn thy approval? Will thou give me a body of my own, so I can serve you even better?' he waited for a response, expecting to get one. 'M-master?' the shade tried again.

'You've served me well shade,' he suddenly heard in his mind, 'but I'm afraid I won't have any further use for you. You've done as I asked and you got me what I want.' His body broke and disappeared in a whirlwind of grey dust under the sounds of a loud cackle. The only thing left in the dark alley was a lifeless body and a raided deck.

* * *

A loud cackle sounded through a large hall lighted by a turquoise fluorescent light. Water seeped down from the ceiling and dripped down in a large pool of water on the half flooded floor. In the end of the hall, on an elevated part of the floor sat a man, in front of a small waterfall, falling from the ceiling all the way down to end in a small basin, which drained the water to who knows where. In the waterfall the man could see how the shade dissolved into thin air. He stood up and walked to the other side of his elevated, dry, safe haven. He reached a large stone desk, divided into ten squares. On one of these squares lay six identical cards. He smirked as he looked over them and turned to a gigantic rock with marine blue carvings on it.

"Ah, success." he said. "Soon phase one, will be completed and we will be one step closer to awaken you, my dear. But first there is one little thing I'll have to take care of, one single link to make in order for my plan to work."

He turned back to the waterfall which was on the left of the elevated part of the hall.

"Sacred waters of my old home in the sea, I beseech thee. Hear to my cries and show me what I ask for, whether if it swims, walks or flies. Show me…"

* * *

Birmingham City, 23:00 PM

"See you later, Sam." "I'll call you when I get home." "Don't forget the math test next week!"

'Yeah, yeah, blablabla.' Sam thought waving his friends goodbye. 'Finally some time for myself.'

"Hey you!" he heard someone say. "I want something from you!"

'What the..' Sam thought as he saw a man in a worn grey cloak approaching him. "And what would that be?" he asked a tad nervous, although sounding confident.

"You have a monster in your duel deck that I would like to own, hand it over and no harm will come to you."

'He must be joking, why would I give my best cards away without any resistance.' Sam thought. 'I'll show him something. I will duel him. Yeah, and beat him and then take his best card. Right, that would work… I guess.'

"I'll duel you for it." he said to the man, "The winner gets the loser's best card." He was surprised about how confident he sounded. He felt like he was almost wetting his pants.

"Fine with me, kid." the mysterious man said. "But I warn you, I'm a dangerous man. Now I will start this duel off, but first… we'll take a small trip to the shadow realm!"

As soon as the words shadow realm passed his lips he throw out a laugh so loud, people in London could even hear them. 'Okay, that's a bit too far.' Sam thought. 'Leicester maybe?' He sighed mentally, only to be reminded of what the man said. 'Wait, did he say shadow realm? I'm getting a nasty feeling about this…'

"Well, kid. I'll start of by placing two cards face down and then I summon Clown Zombie (1350/0), in attack mode."

"Hmm, ok I'll play Ancient Lizard Warrior (1400/1100), attack!" Ancient Lizard Warrior easily struck Clown Zombie down. "Oh yeah, I'm the best!"

"Not so fast kiddo, you still have a lot to learn. Reveal face down card! Rope of life. By discarding my entire hand I can bring Clown Zombie back from the graveyard and increase his attack points by 800!" Clown Zombie appeared back on the field as fast as it was taken down, but now with 2150 attack points. It had cost him 50 life points, but it got him a stronger monster in the end "Now my Clown Zombie, attack his Ancient Lizard Warrior!"

"No!" Sam exclaimed as his Ancient Lizard Warrior was struck down and his life points dropped to 1250.

"Yes, and to continue my turn I'll play the card I just drew, Pot of Greed, which allows me to draw two more cards." He hummed in approval of the cards he just drew. "I'll play one card face down and then I'll bring my Summoned Skull to the field. Now make your turn."

"I will, I'll draw first." Sam said. 'Meh, another low level monster. I best play it in defense mode, since it only has 1300 attack points. ' "I'll place two cards face down and then I summon a monster in defense mode."

"I don't think so, because I activate my second face down card, Stop Defense. This means that your monster in defense mode will be switched into attack mode. Now let's see which monster you hid from me."

A little robotic man with yellow boots, hands and head with tiny yellow antennas clad in a blue cape appeared on the field.

"Ah, so it's Oscillo Hero? You're quite desperate." another laughed boomed through the shadows of the shadow realm. "Well, it does mean that I can end this right now."

"You can certainly try" Sam said defiantly. 'Heh, he'll never expect the two traps I placed, he is going down!'

"Very well then." the mysterious man said. He was looking quite sure of his victory over the teen boy. He raised his creaky voice, "Clown Zombie, attack his Oscillo Hero!"

"Reveal face down card, Ice Block! This negates one of your monsters attacks and puts the attacking monster into defense mode. My Oscillo Hero is safe."

"So you think, but I actually expected you to play a trap card."

"You what?" Sam reacted like being stung by an angry wasp.

"I could have my Summoned Skull attack you first, but I knew that you had set a trap card. If I'd let you use it first, I still would have had my strongest monster ready to attack you and now that your trap is gone, I can deliver the final blow."

Sam felt his heart beating in his throat. The man started to get creepier every passing second and he had him fooled into using his trap card right there. 'Ah well, I still have my other trap. He's going to be so pissed off as soon as I reveal it.' Sam chuckled mentally.

Sam's attention was drawn to the duel again when the main yelled: "Summoned Skull, attack his Oscillo Hero with Lightning Strike!"

Summoned Skull's claws clenched together as electricity coursed through his arms. At the moment he was going to unleash his might on Oscillo Hero, Sam yelled: "Think again smartass! I activate my other face down card, Mirror Force. Say goodbye to all of your monsters."

Sam grinned as he saw the surprised look on the man's face. 'Heh, that'll teach him to mess with me. He is as scared as… wait. Why is he grinning like that?' "What's so funny?" Sam demanded to know.

"You're so predictable, kid. I knew this would happen all along." the man said with a cackle. "I'm sure you wouldn't mind if I revealed my last face down card? I'm sure you'll like it."

'Oh no, his last face down. I completely forgot about that one.' Sam gulped at the thought of losing now. He thought that he had the man in the place he wanted to have him, but every time he thinks he is one step ahead, the contrary gets proven.

"I play Seven Tools of the Bandit." the man said triumphantly.

"What does that card do?" Sam exclaimed completely surprised by this card. He had never seen a counter-trap card before.

"By paying a thousand life points I can negate your trap card and destroy is. So your Mirror Force… is gone!" the man said, while the mirror splintered in front of Sam. The man did lose a thousand life points though.

"Where were we? Oh, yes, I remember. Summoned Skull, attack!" the man shouted victoriously. The lightning burst collided with Oscillo Hero and a large explosion destroyed Sam's monster, sending his life points down to zero.

"Y-you defeated me, b-but how. I-I thought, I was sure.." Sam stuttered.

"How very observant kid, but don't worry. I won't harm you," the man said, adding, "if you keep your promise that is."

Sam looked the man in the eyes, or more precisely, at the place the man's eyes should be. "Fine, choose it yourself." he said and he gave his deck to the mysterious man.

"Ah, yes. I've found them. I would like these cards." the man said holding up five cards.

Sam gave him a puzzled look. "But those are five useless cards, why would you want them?"

"You know what kid, let's make a deal. I give you my Monster Reborn card and my Summoned Skull and you give me these cards." he said while holding the two mentioned cards in front of Sam's face.

'Ok, he is crazy, but I am not turning this deal down. That's a sweet monster.' Sam thought. "Deal!" he said, snatching the two cards from the man's hands. "What's your name by the way?"

"My name?" the man said stricken by surprise. He clearly didn't expect this question from the kid.

"Yeah, I assume you have one." Sam said.

"People call me Evnokoïs, the Kind one." the man said.

"Um, that's a unique name.." Sam said with a funny look on his face. 'Geez, he is strange.' he thought.

"I will go now, have a very nice night." Evnokoïs said.

"Um, sure. You too." Sam said as he walked towards his home. 'Creep.'

'You've done well my servant.'

'Thank you master, do you need anything else from me?' the shade said.

'No, this'll be all. I'm calling you back.'

'As you wish master.'

* * *

Deep under the blue sea, in a leaking grand hall, bent over his large stone desk, stood a man. Two of the ten squares were filled, one obtained six identical cards and the other one had five different cards, but those five cards together would form one whole.

The man turned to a large rock with marine blue carvings. "Phase one is completed, my dearest. Now we must be patient. We must wait for a certain event, before I can awake the power that you hold." He seemed to listen for something as he stopped in his tracks. Suddenly he scowled, "No, no dear. We mustn't be rash, we must wait."

He walked back to the waterfall. "We must wait for Yugi Muto to fulfill his destiny. If we get into his way he might stop us! We can't let them happen now, can we?" he said as he let go of another of his laughs. "Now, now, dear. Don't be like that. You know me… I'm your Timorós, your Evnokoïs…"

* * *

**That's all for now. **

**Next chapter will mostly be about Yugi. I was quite content about how the duel worked out. I find them hard to describe, but it's very much fun to do so.**

**Please review and tell me what you think, I can use the critics.**


	2. Chapter 1

**I felt like adding Chapter 1 immedeatly. **

**This is where the actual story starts, a few weeks after the Ceremonial Duel**

**Enjoy and don't forget to review.**

* * *

Chapter 1:

* * *

-2 years later-

"Hey Yug!" Joey shouted from across the street. Without looking Joey ran towards Yugi, resulting in a loud mixture of car horns and cursing from the drivers' part. "Sorry!" Joey exclaimed apologetically swinging his arms in the air.

It looked funny as far as Yugi could see how Joey struggled to get across the street. "Whoa!" he could hear Joey yell as he was almost been hit by a truck. The truck wasn't the real danger though; the driver's glare was more deadly than the truck itself. Joey made it to Yugi eventually.

"Well, that's enough action for me today." Joey said as he crashed down on a bench close to where Yugi was.

Joey's statement made Yugi chuckle. "Why were you in such a hurry to get to me Joey?" he asked. He observed his friend, who was dressed in a white shirt and blue jeans.

"Well, I haven't seen you since the time we were in Egypt. You know, when you dueled Atem. Why did you leave all of a sudden?" Joey asked curiously. "I mean, usually you and I see each other every day, but now I didn't see you for an entire week."

His sweeping gestures, while saying 'an entire week', made his statement look so funny. Yugi chuckled mentally, although he didn't feel like laughing. He dropped himself next to Joey and let go of a long dejected sigh.

'Oh, I think I hit a soft spot there. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I shouldn't have mentioned Atem.' Joey thought making a mental facepalm. "You miss him, don't you?" he asked putting a hand on Yugi's shoulder. Yugi looked him into his eyes and nodded slightly.

"He was a part of me for so long… Now I feel empty, I can't really explain… I just needed some time to think." Yugi said, holding back his tears. He could kick himself for being such a sissy. Why would he even cry over just some other guy, even though he was his best friend. Sometimes he even considered Atem his brother. They went through so much together. They defeated Pegasus, Marik, Dartz and Bakura. They saved the world several times. He might had proven that he could do without Atem, but that didn't necessarily mean that he wouldn't miss him… right?

"I understand Yug, but you have to go on with your life. Crying won't make him come back, you know." Joey tried to comfort Yugi by rubbing his hand over Yugi's shoulder.

Yugi sighed again and tilted his head his head slightly towards Joey. "I know, but I just can't get that nagging feeling out of my head." He dropped his head in his hands and sobbed quietly. He had talked with his grandfather about this when he got home, but he didn't get this emotional in front of his grandfather. Sure, he cried a few times when he went to sleep, but…

"Come on Yug." Joey said standing up. "I know just the thing to cheer you up."

* * *

Sitting behind an expensive looking desk on a comfortable chair, within a luxurious office in one of the highest skyscrapers in New York, was a man. His hair brown but graying. He was wearing a crème shirt with a black tie and a classy brown suit. He was playing with his ring, a golden ring with a green gem, while enjoying the view he had looking out the large glass windows of his office. Doors slammed open and a short man with black hair, clothed in a black suit stormed inside.

"Strickland!" the man behind the desk yelled furiously, "Don't you have any manners. Get your uncivilized posterior out of my corporate premises and knock before you enter again!"

"Yes sir. Of course sir. My apologies sir." the man named Strickland said anxiously, quietly stepping out of the room and closing the door behind him. He knocked on the door and entered the room again.

"Strickland!" the man said again still furious. "Did I tell you to enter?" His chair was turned to the windows so his back was facing Strickland.

"No sir, you did not." Strickland gulped.

"So? What are you still doing here?" the man said clearly annoyed with his –in his opinion- mindless employee.

"Forgive me sir." Strickland said, backing out again and closing the doors. He sighed and looked at the secretary, she was still typing like nothing had happened. He guessed she was used to it. Mister Stanford wasn't the easiest employer in the world, quite the contrary. He thought of him as a spoiled graying urchin, who would get angry at almost anything. He knocked on the door, again. "Enter." it sounded faintly through the door. Strickland opened the door once again and walked inside. Mr. Stanford was facing him now with no sign of any frustration on his face. Mr. Stanford had an engraved nameplate attached to his desk. 'Theodore Dedrick Herbert Stanford' it said. 'Odd,' Strickland thought, 'I thought he would be furious with me. Now let's hope I didn't have to go through all this nonsense for nothing.'

"Strickland, I called for you because I'm facing a humongous problem." Mr. Stanford said.

'This should be interesting.' Strickland thought, while nodding curtly to his employer as indication that he was listening.

"I'm utterly bored!" he said childishly. "And you know what that means, don't you Strickland?"

"Yes sir, right away sir." Strickland said wanting to bash his head against the wall for going through all this trouble to hear his boss say that he is bored. Now he had to take care of 'his majesties' entertainment and that meant a lot of work for him. He hated this job, but if he would complain or resign, Mr. Stanford would make his 'pathetic uncivilized measly little existence' completely miserable. Mr. Stanford had that kind of power, boy he knew.

* * *

"I told you I would cheer you up Yug." Joey said triumphantly. He felt like he'd just conquered the world by cheering his best friend up. He knew Yugi liked to duel, so he took him to the Duel Center. They played a game –Yugi won of course- and that was enough for Yugi to be the chirpy little guy he is. Seeing him like that, Joey just couldn't resist.

"Ah, Joey stop!" Yugi exclaimed in shock and horror, as Joey gave him a long and quite painful noogie. Joey eventually listened to his begging friends and released him from the crushing grip of his left arm.

After Yugi stroked his hair in order to undo the damage done to his hair by Joey, he said: "Gee Joey, will you please stop doing that?"

"Sorry Yug," Joey said, "I just couldn't resist it." Immediately after apologizing to Yugi, Joey pointed to his right side saying: "Do you see what I see? Is that… Tristan? With Miho?" He made one of his weird faces like he was seeing something terrible happening in front of him.

"Yeah…" Yugi confirmed, "I didn't know Tristan was still falling for Miho, I thought he was after your sister." Yugi looked innocently at Joey, knowing that he had mentioned something that Joey never took well.

"Oh that… that…" Joey growled in the back of his throat like he was going to release a hideous beast by simply coughing it up from his stomach.

'His stomach would be big enough to shelter a monster.' Yugi thought chuckling quietly.

"Tristan!" Joey yelled angrily, "You sister-cheating no good bonehead!"

Tristan and Miho both looked in the direction of Yugi and Joey. Tristan was totally flabbergasted. He expected that Joey would be happy with him not 'bothering' his sister. Miho on the other hand had no idea of what was happening and why it was happening.

Joey stormed across the street towards Tristan and Miho, dragging Yugi along. There was no traffic on the street, something which Yugi was thankful for, so both made it across intact and fairly quick.

"Hi Yugi, hi Joey!" Miho chirped enthusiastically. "Tristan is taking Miho shopping!" This explained why Miho was so excited. After all, she loved shopping.

"Yeah." Tristan said. "Besides, I thought you would be happy to know that I was leaving Serenity be." He said it with the utmost sincerity, but he only received a death glare from Joey, who was boiling up to the point that his head would almost explode.

"You… you… you're just an ordinary flirt!" he said furiously before storming off.

"What's up with Joey?" Miho asked confused. "What's wrong with Joey's sister?"

Both Yugi and Tristan shrugged it off. "He sometimes gets mad over nothing." Tristan answered casually.

Miho blinked a few times, still a bit confused, but a display with jewelry caught her eye and before she said another thing she dragged Tristan with her.

"Bye Yugi!" she said hastily as she rushed towards the shop.

Feeling the pull of Miho's arm, Tristan almost lost his balance. "See you tomorrow Yugi!" he said as he was dragged into the jewelry store.

"Ok, bye!" he said before continuing on his way home. He had been away from home almost the entire day. He'd spent most time trudging through the city, since he didn't have anything better to do. Tomorrow school would start again, and although he didn't mind going to school, he simply didn't feel like going.

'I probably just need some sleep.' he thought. He hadn't slept well this week. He kept remembering his last duel with Atem. With wasn't the right word to use, as he was dueling against him.

"Oh well," he said to himself, "I might feel better tomorrow."

He turned left at the next crossing; he could see his grandfather's game shop, his home, from afar. He sighed again, slowing in his pace as he got closer to home. He stopped in front of the door and hesitated for a moment before opening the door and entering. He didn't know why he hesitated, but it bothered him that he did. Mr. Muto was standing behind the desk of his beloved game shop. He always waited for Yugi there, even if he was late.

"Yugi, good you're finally back." he said relieved. Yugi had been away longer than he usually would, something that slightly disturbed the old man. Since the ceremonial duel between his grandson and the spirit that possessed him for so long, Yugi hadn't been acting like he always used to. He tried to talk to Yugi about it, but he would get some deflective answers and so he finally gave up. 'It's probably better if Yugi solves this himself.'

"There is some dinner left in the fridge." Mr. Muto said. "Go home already; I will come as soon as I've closed the shop." He chuckled quietly as he looked at his grandson's face. It looked like he was expecting some kind of punishment for being late. Not that he was that late, only late for dinner and later than he used to be home.

"Ok grandpa." Yugi said with a sigh of relief. He didn't know why, but he expected some preaching from his grandfather about him being very worried about his grandson showing up late for dinner and staying away from home so long.

Seeing his energetic grandson running towards the door leading into the living room like a racing horse, made Mr. Muto smile. It was unbelievable how much Yugi had changed these last two years. He wasn't the shy boy who solved the Millennium Puzzle anymore; he was the King of Games, a confident teen who now was almost ready to face the world. Yes, almost ready; he still needed to get over losing his friend, Atem.

He slowly walked to the door, locked it and flipped the card so it would say 'Closed'. He looked outside; a red cat crossed the street. There was no traffic outside, it amazed the old man. The streets have never been this quiet before, haven't they? It might just be his imagination, as Ishizu said prior to the ceremonial battle, the world had been saved and Atem wasn't needed anymore.

'I got too used to adventures.' the old man stated in his mind.

He turned around and walked towards the door that would lead him to the living room. He slowly walked the through his shop still deep in thought about the past two years, who were filled with nothing but action and excitement. When he got to living room he saw his young grandson sitting at the dining table, eating his dinner. He joined him at the table, sitting right in front of his grandson.

"How was your day Yugi?" he asked. Trying to uncover why his grandson was so late.

"I met up with Joey and we went to the Duel Center." he said casually. "Then we saw Miho and Tristan and we talked to them. Well, Joey mostly yelled before storming off." He played a little with his food before taking another mouthful. After swallowing his meal he continued: "After that I walked home, so I guess it was already late when Joey and I left the Duel Center."

'He always knows what I'm after when I talk to him for some reason.' Mr. Muto thought.

"I'm going to go to bed soon grandpa." Yugi said whilst standing up. "Tomorrow school will begin and I want to be well rested."

"Of course Yugi, don't let me hold you up."

"Goodnight grandpa." Yugi said to his grandfather, rubbing his eyes. He felt really tired.

"Goodnight Yugi." Mr. Muto said warmly.

Yugi went up the stairs, leading to the bathroom and bedrooms. He went up another staircase to get to the attic, his room. He dropped himself onto his bed bouncing on the mattress.

He looked out of the dormer window deep in thought. Why had he been afraid of getting punished by his grandfather for being late, why couldn't he let go of Atem. He promised Atem that he'd be okay. He decided that he'd better go to school tomorrow. He needed the distraction and he would see Téa again. He flushed a bit while thinking of her. School mightn't be so bad tomorrow after all.

Within an hour, Yugi was sound asleep. Neither dreams nor nightmares, just asleep.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.**

**Plz review.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Yay my first two reviews!**

**So, this is chapter 2... obviously, as it states below... **

**Uhhh... now there was something I wanted to say, but I keep forgetting what it is... meh, worries for next chapter.**

**Please review, but mostly.. enjoy!**

**I own nothing btw... except for my OC's!**

* * *

Chapter 2:

* * *

This night, Yugi had slept a lot better than he had the entire week before. He felt much better and was eager to go to school, even thought he didn't feel like going the day before. Clad in his school uniform he strode to school. He was still deep in thought about everything that bothered him though. So deep in thought that he walked past Tristan and Téa.

"Hey Yugi, wait up!" they both yelled, running towards their friend.

Yugi was startled by the sudden of hearing his name being yelled, but was relieved to see it were only his friends.

"Sorry, guys," he apologized, "I didn't see you there." He gave a faint smile and turned around upon hearing his name again. This time it was coming from a certain Joey Wheeler.

Joey stopped in his tracks next to Yugi, giving a low growl aimed at Tristan. Tristan ignored it and started walking. The rest of the group followed.

"What's up between Joey and Tristan?" Téa asked to Yugi, wondering why Joey was angry with Tristan. Not that it was the first time; Joey and Tristan had their fights once in a while.

"Well, Joey saw Tristan with Miho and got upset, because only a few months ago he had a crush on Serenity." Yugi explained.

"That doesn't make sense, Joey was about to kill Tristan if he got too close to Serenity." Téa stated confusedly.

"Yeah, well we all know Joey." Tristan said, mixing into the conversation. "He isn't the most ordinary of us all."

"What's that supposed to mean!" Joey said angrily. He jumped in front of the three, clenching his fist in front of Tristan's face.

"I think he tries to say that you are a very special person to him Joey." Téa soothed, patting her friend's shoulder in the process.

Joey muttered some incoherent words under his breath before he resumed walking again.

They arrived at school a few minutes later. They saw a lot of familiar faces and also a few new ones, but that's normal when the new school year starts. There were a lot of new teachers, since a lot of teachers left the school; either because they were retiring or because they found a job at another school.

As the group entered the schoolyard, a familiar face greeted them whilst racing towards the main building. It was Mr. Tanaka, last year's math teacher, who usually arrives as soon as the school building opens; although this time he was very late.

"Look there's Bakura!" Téa exclaimed, pointing towards a boy with long white hair, dressed in his trademark striped shirt and his light blue jacket. He was talking to Miho.

"Hi guys!" Miho squealed in glee, waving her hand energetically through the air as if she was shooing a fly; she almost hit Bakura.

"Hi Miho, hi Bakura." Yugi and Téa said in unison. They sometimes had such moments, that both of them said the same simultaneously. It made them both slightly blush.

Bakura looked a lot better than he used to when he was possessed by the spirit of the Millennium Ring. He looked better rested, the bags and dark circles he used to have under his eyes were gone. He looked a lot more confident and at peace, since he didn't have to fear for his Yami taking over and hurting his friends.

"So," Tristan said, "how have you been doing lately, Bakura?" Tristan asked what everyone wanted to know. Like Yugi, Bakura hadn't shown himself since the Ceremonial Duel.

"I've been great so far." Bakura said happily. As he wanted to start telling abou what he had been up to this week, raindrops started to fall from the sky.

"I think we should better go inside." Téa suggested and everyone quickly agreed.

Once inside, Bakura started telling about how he had been working on getting his life back on track. His Yami, Zorc that is, made quite a mess out of it.

"By the way," Bakura suddenly said, "are we in the same homeroom?"

"Tristan and Miho are in the same homeroom!" Miho chirped cuddling Tristan's arm. This resulted another death glare from Joey's part.

"Let me see your timetable Bakura." Yugi said. He examined the piece of paper and said: "We are in the same homeroom Bakura. Let me see yours, Téa."

Téa handed him her timetable, as did Joey and Tristan. Yugi concluded that they all were in the same homeroom; Classroom 3-D would be their homeroom.

"I call dibs on the last row seat!" Joey yelled as he lunged forward into the classroom.

Yugi sat down next to Joey and Tristan sat in front of him, him as in Joey. Bakura was still talking to Téa, Miho sat diagonally in front of Tristan, preserving a seat for Téa. A bag tossed into the seat next to Tristan.

"Duke!" Yugi exclaimed. "Are you in this homeroom too? That's great!"

Duke gave a little nod, confirming Yugi's words.

Bakura sat in another row, but next to Yugi. He whispered some words to the guy in front of him when Mr. Tanaka ran inside. He threw his suitcase on his desk and looked wildly around him. He ran outside again giving no clue of what he was doing, leaving his students, utterly bewildered, behind.

"That's got to be the most random thing I've ever seen." Duke said. "And believe me, I've seen many random things." He added, shaking his head.

"At least we now know who our homeroom teacher is, don't we?"

"I don't know if I have to be happy with Mr. Tanaka, or not." Tristan said. "Last year he really picked on me, always giving me some nasty remarks."

"Well, you kind of said to him that his face looked like a monkey's one." Yugi said, chuckling softly.

"He does look like one though." Duke stated. Right then Mr. Tanaka entered the classroom again. Within a few seconds it was very quiet, no single cough or sniff could be heard.

Mr. Tanaka cleared his throat. "Welcome children, I'm your homeroom teacher for this year." he said sighing deeply. "I can't tell you how much I was looking forward to this year." he said sarcastically. "I'm truly glad that I had to rise up inappropriately early this morning just to see you all! How wonderful!"

The class ignored the teacher's lamentations and focused on doing other things. Mr. Tanaka was always like this the first lesson. He needed to 'warm up' for the year and this was his way of doing it.

Mr. Tanaka sighed once again, before sitting down behind his desk. He started to unpack some papers, some forms and a few bright colored pieces of paper which he laid down on the right corner of his desk.

"Now class…"

* * *

The sound of knocking echoed through a large office high above New York.

"You may enter." Mr. Stanford said shortly.

A short black haired man slowly walked towards the desk in the back of the large room.

"Ah Strickland!" Stanford said delighted. "I hope you brought with you something worth my time? A remedy to my infection with boredom?"

"Yes sir, I have what you asked for. Where should I take him?"

"Well where do you think Strickland? The room with THE chair of course."

"You are kidding right sir? I mean, it's just a kid."

"Oh, I'm completely aware of that Strickland, but it is necessary for me to overcome this sudden infliction of…" Mr. Stanford was interrupted by the beeping sound of his intercom device.

"One moment please Strickland, this could be important." He pressed a green button. "Who has the honor of disturbing me in my affairs?"

"There is someone to see you sir." the secretary's voice said through the intercom. "He said that he's a friend of your son."

Mr. Stanford scowled and seated back into his chair he sighed: "Fine, let him in." He then turned to Strickland. "What are you still doing here? Didn't I tell you, you had business to attend to?"

Strickland gave a curt nod and left the room, closing the door softly behind him. He shook his head once outside.

Mr. Stanford waited impatiently for his unexpected guest. 'Finally!' he thought when he heard a knock on the door.

"Enter!" he said and a man of approximately twenty years entered the room. He had medium length black hair and he wore a grey shirt with black jeans and a neat pair of shoes.

'Oh great, good to know my son deals with cavemen.' Stanford thought, already disgusted by the young man who now walked through office.

"So… You're one of Jules' acquaintances?"

"Yes." the young man said curtly.

"Hah," Stanford scoffed, "I thought I had taught my son not to let himself in with potential delinquents." He was patting his feet impatiently on the ground.

Before the young man could respond, Stanford asked him for his name.

"Nathanson sir. Bryce Nathanson."

"So, Bryce…" he hissed slightly, "It has come to my attention that you're a bad influence for my son. You're causing him to be… recalcitrant."

"I didn't come here for any lectures old man." Bryce said. "I came here to talk business."

"Oh… and what do you think you can offer me?"

"I'm a person to get things done, someone who doesn't question your motives."

Bryce's seriousness made Stanford laugh. "And why do you think I'm in need for someone like that?" he asked, still laughing.

Bryce flinched, becoming less confident each passing second. The man in front of him was breaking him down piece by piece.

"Pfew, you are some person Bryce, I have to give you that." Stanford said, turning serious all of a sudden. "I admire your courage though, coming to me like that and all. Maybe I can find some use for you…" The old man thought for a while, stroking his perfectly styled, like his hair graying, goatee.

He jumped up all of a sudden and walked away from his desk. "Come with me young man, I have a simple test for you."

Bryce followed the old man through a hallway, coated with iron plates, to a door with a 'Warning, electricity' sign on it.

"Oh no, not this door. Quite dangerous room that is." Stanford muttered under his breath. They walked over to another door and entered the room behind it. First they had to walk a little staircase, about six steps, to reach some sort of control room. It had a large window, looking over the 'Warning, electricity' chamber, a lot of machines and a large comfy swivel chair. Bryce could see a few buttons on the chair's armrest and a black slider.

"Welcome to my favorite room on my company's floor!" Stanford said proudly with a flowing gesture around the room. "This is the place where all my master plans sprout."

Bryce looked through the window into the neighboring chamber. He was shocked by the sight of a young boy, barely twelve years old, strapped against a chair and dotted with electrodes.

"You don't say you're going to…" Bryce said, feeling his stomach turning around.

"Why not, I take great pleasure in this. In fact, my mind always opens to new possibilities under the screams of suffering people." Stanford said, his face completely blank.

"Sir, I can't let you do this. It's just a kid!" Strickland said.

"Oh, don't worry Strickland. If you want you can go right after him." Stanford said pointing to the strapped boy. He seated himself in the swivel chair and commanded to start the systems. There was a soft zooming sound as the systems started working.

"Before we start Strickland, I would like to know this kid's name." Stanford said.

"Jason Brown, sir." Strickland said, not daring to look at the boy's face.

"Now, now Strickland. Don't be so sad, he will suffer for the greater cause… my wellbeing." Stanford said chuckling.

* * *

"Ugh, why do these classes take so long." Joey complained. Mr. Tanaka was still talking about the rules, respect, discipline and a lot of other things not even important mentioning.

"…and that is why you are not allowed to…" Mr. Tanaka groaned upon hearing a few curt knocks on the door. He always hated to be interrupted.

The door opened and principal Matsumoto shoved a boy inside. The entire class was looking at the boy. He was about Bakura's height, Yugi noted. He had bluish-green eyes and a short brown crest of hair crowned his head. He was wearing the school uniform, but he was undoubtedly new this year.

'Has to be tough, changing school in senior year.' Yugi thought.

"Moments like this are so awkward." Téa whispered to Tristan.

The new student didn't seem to bother, he observed his class. The principal was busy explaining the situation to Mr. Tanaka. Yugi focused on his work, an assignment given by Mr. Tanaka before he started his speech about virtues, norms and values. He felt someone peering at him and when he looked up, he looked straightly into the new student's eyes. Yugi thought he could see his left eye twitching, but the principal tapped on the student's back and said something to him. Then the principal left and Mr. Tanaka resumed talking.

"Class! We have a new student." _Obviously,_ he added in his mind. "Now would you care to introduce yourself? What's your name and where are you from?"

'So he is a foreigner.' Yugi concluded.

"I'm Nicolas." the student said. "I'm from the States and I came to live here in Japan."

"Ah! America!" Mr. Tanaka exclaimed. "There where everything is possible! Now let's see where you can sit." he said, scratching his head. "Ah there! You can sit next to student Bakura."

Bakura looked up as his name was being mentioned and he saw the new guy heading towards the empty seat on his right.

"Hi," Bakura whispered, "I'm Bakura."

"So I heard." Nicolas said, smiling faintly. "Did I miss anything important?"

* * *

**That was chapter two. I did some research into Japanese education to write this as realistic as I can.**

**Oh and I remeber what I wanted to say earlier. I will use english dub names, although I might start calling Bakura Ryou..**

**Remember to review and if you see a grammatical error please notify me so I can deal with it accordingly. Any advise is welcome, if you have any questions, ask and I maybe possibly might answer them, unless I don't want to of course.**


	4. Chapter 3

**So chapter 3 allready...**

**I'm so happy right now, today my marks of the last year of school were given and I'm promoted to Senior Year (year 6 here in the Netherlands) YAY!**

**DISCLAIMER: I still don't own anything but my OC's**

* * *

Chapter 3:

* * *

Math… Nicolas hated math; he never excelled at it either. History was more his thing, ancient history preferably.

"Mr. Tanaka is just too… boring," he whispered to Bakura.

Bakura chuckled softly. "He isn't that bad; he's only like this for one day."

"I hope you're right. More lessons like these would be the death of me," Nicolas said, grinning faintly.

"You could always try asking him to be less boring," Bakura joked.

"I will take it in consideration…" Nicolas said, chuckling softly. "But then again, I don't want to be on his bad side for the rest of the year."

"Gentlemen!" Mr. Tanaka yelled across the room. "If I hear one more word from you two, you will face an hour of detention!"

Both immediately turned back to their work, feeling Mr. Tanaka's eyes glaring at them. After a few seconds, he resumed his explanation of a hard equation, scribbling on the blackboard as if his life depended on it. The bell rang; lunch time couldn't have come at a better moment.

Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Duke shoved their tables together. Miho and Téa joined them and Bakura pulled Nicolas into the group, after introductions and some offbeat humor on Joey's part, who seemed to forget that he was still in a fight with Tristan. Those fights usually ended that way, with one of the two – or both – forgetting about the fight they had.

"So what made you come over to Japan?" Duke asked curiously.

"My uncle, who's also my adoptive father, thought it would be an experience that could influence the rest of my life." Nicolas said snobbishly, raising his nose.

"You were adopted by your uncle?" Téa asked puzzled.

"Yeah…" Nicolas said distantly. "My parents and grandparents are all dead… my uncle is the only family I've left."

"Don't you have an aunt, or did your uncle never marry?"

"Oh he did marry, but my aunt passed away a few years ago, but I'd rather not talk about it. That was… a hard time."

"So, do you play Duel Monsters?" Yugi asked, trying to change the subject.

"Uh oh, Yugi is on warpath." Joey joked.

"In fact I do," Nicolas said, reaching for his pocket. He fished his deck out of his pocket and put it on the table. "It took me months to assemble a balanced deck of some decent monsters, nice traps and powerful magic cards."

"Can I take a look?" Yugi asked, his amethyst eyes sparkling.

"Sure." he said, handing a portion of his cards over to Yugi. "Only some of my monster cards, though. My magic and trap cards are my secrets."

Yugi looked through the cards, which were placed in alphabetic order. It mostly contained cards below 2000 attack points and somewhat stronger defensive monsters.

"Well this deck is special alright, but I expected some more powerful monsters," Yugi said smiling apologetically. "You do have a lot of cards I've never seen or heard of before."

"My cards may look weak, but I assure you that I can win duels with this deck." He took one of the cards from his deck and said, "This monster for instance. It has only five hundred attack points and three hundred defense points, but I favor this monster because he has a really special ability. Whenever summoned to the field, he can attack his opponent's life points directly, but that's not all." He put the card down on the table.

"Normally a person can't attack the first round, but this monster's special ability makes it an exception to that rule. This means if I'm dueling someone and I'm allowed to start I can use my monster's special ability to attack his life points and then I can order a normal attack. Since my opponent wouldn't have any monsters on the field, his life points would be the target again."

"That means you could do a thousand points of damage in one turn with this monster?" Yugi ask in astonishment.

"Yes, but after that turn it is quite useless," Nicolas said chuckling.

"Do you have a favorite monster?" Joey asked. "Mine is my Red-Eyes and Yug's is Dark Magician."

"My favorite monster…" Nicolas said in deep thought. "That would be this one," he said after some thinking, holding up a card featuring a silver dragon.

"Golden-Eyes Silver Dragon," Yugi mumbled. "Wow, that is a nice card."

"It doesn't look so powerful to me Yug," Joey said.

"Well Joey, Golden-Eyes does only have 1800 attack points, but his defense points make up for it."

"Oh yeah, you're right, it has 3100 defense points."

"That's not all," Nicolas said enthusiastically. "When combined with its twin brother, the Silver-Eyes Golden Dragon, he will become really powerful."

"Do you have the Silver-Eyes in your deck?" Yugi asked.

"Yep, right… here," he said pulling out another dragon card from his deck.

"Hey, this one has 3100 attack points and 1800 defense points," Joey said.

"Indeed, but unfortunately it doesn't have any special abilities, neither does my Golden-Eyes. But enough about me now, I'd like to know if…" he fell silent as he glanced at the clock. "Uh oh, got to go! The principal is expecting me!" He quickly jumped up and made his way for the door.

"He looks nice," Téa said suddenly.

"Yeah, but he must have a tough life, you know, without parents and all," Duke said.

"Since did you become so compassionate?" Tristan asked jokingly, but was ignored by the rest of the group.

"Miho wants to be friends with Nicolas," Miho said. She sat next to Tristan, but she didn't hug his arms as she used to before entering the school. If a teacher saw her doing that, she, and Tristan, too, would be in big trouble. The school rules explicitly said that dating other students wasn't allowed.

They chatted a bit, ate their lunch, and before they knew it, Nicolas was back.

"So why did you have to go to Mr. Matsumoto?" Bakura asked. He was a lot more talkative than he used to be.

"Before he showed me this classroom, he said that he wanted to speak to me during lunch break. He asked me some questions and then I was allowed to go back."

* * *

Ms. Akiyama walked stylishly over to the desk, holding her briefcase in her left hand. With a solemn swing she put the briefcase on the desk and she opened it and took her books out. She put her glasses on the tip of her nose and she looked at the class haughtily. Nobody saw Ms. Akiyama entering the room, so nobody paid attention. She was a small teacher, at least two heads smaller than the standard senior year student. This was the last year she would be teaching before retiring, although she would rather continue teaching pupils for the rest of her life.

"Ahem…" she tried to get attention, but everyone was still chatting with friends or busy doing some homework from Mr. Tanaka.

"Class!" her shrill voice sounded again, this time sufficiently harder. The class turned to her and, realizing she was a teacher, all returned to their seats.

She was smiling, the old woman. For some reason she just had to whenever she saw a class full of new students.

"Now that I have your attention," she said, "I would like to introduce myself." She grabbed a piece of chalk and wrote her name on the blackboard. She wrote just as stylishly as she walked. "I'm Ms. Akiyama and I'll be teaching history."

'Finally!' Nicolas thought. 'Something fun!'

The rest of the class thought the exact opposite as they groaned in boredom already.

"Now, I know that many of you don't like history, but I'm sure I won't be that boring." she said offended. "I heard you've ended the textbook last year, so that gives me the opportunity to teach whatever I want, instead of following a boring textbook."

Everyone looked in suspense to Ms. Akiyama, waiting for her to say what this semester would be all about.

"Who can name the oldest civilization known to mankind?" Ms. Akiyama asked.

A student raised her finger. Ms. Akiyama looked on a piece of paper with the student's picture and their names and said, "Yes Satomi?"

"Egypt, miss," the girl answered.

"I'm afraid that is incorrect, but you were very close." Ms. Akiyama said with a kind smile. "Does anyone else want to try?"

Yugi raised his finger hesitantly, although he was a lot more confident than before, he still didn't like giving answers in front of a class.

"Ah, Yugi." Ms. Akiyama said after she searched for his name. "What is the oldest civilization known to mankind according to you?"

"Atlantis, Ms. Akiyama." he said, almost cracking his voice as everyone in the room stared at him. Yugi heard some sniggers and apparently Ms. Akiyama heard them too.

"Now who is so immature to laugh at a serious response?" she said angrily. The classroom went quiet immediately. "Well the joke is on you, because Yugi is absolutely right." The classroom than erupted in a chaos of whispering in astonishment about what Ms. Akiyama and Yugi had said.

"Silence!" Ms. Akiyama yelled, but no avail as everyone ignored the small teacher. She knew how to make classes like this quiet, so she scratched the blackboard with her long nails, producing an ear-piercing sound that made everyone shiver. It worked, as the class was quiet again, more quiet than it had been before.

"As I was saying…" she said. "Atlantis is the oldest civilizations known to mankind. Professor Hawkins discovered the city not so long ago and turned our knowledge about history upside down. Not long ago he published a thesis about his findings, and I would like to discuss the things he wrote with you." She was silent for a short moment and looked through the class, wearing her kind smile on her face again. "Or we could ask for some new textbooks and go through them." she said, awaiting her class' response.

"Who votes for textbooks?" she asked. Nobody raised a hand. "Then Atlantis it is!"

* * *

"What subjects do we have tomorrow?" Joey asked to no one in particular.

"We start off with another boring homeroom lesson from Mr. Tanaka…" Tristan said sighing heavily.

"Then we have Japanese," Bakura said.

"Lunch break!" Miho exclaimed cheerfully.

"English and last but not least, some movement during sport class," Yugi said.

They were walking down the hallway to the door that led outside. They invited Nicolas to walk home with them, but he declined, probably because he had to go another way to get home, wherever that might be.

"First day back at school wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Joey said. He'd completely changed since this morning, when he was a bit grumpy.

"I wonder who our English teacher will be; they say he is a new teacher," Téa said.

"He can't be worse than Mr. Ito, can he?" Tristan said. "It was about time that man retired."

"It's a shame about Ms. Tsukuda, though," Téa said again. "She was always so nice."

"What happened to her?" Duke asked.

"A few days ago, she got hit by a car and now she's in the hospital. She has to stay there for at least six weeks."

"Who was Ms. Tsukuda again?" Bakura asked.

"Last year's history teacher," Yugi answered.

"She was very nice and all, but utterly boring," Joey said.

To the west they could see the Kaiba Corp. building standing out above all other building in Domino.

"Did anyone miss Kaiba today?" Joey asked, "Because I sure didn't."

"Kaiba graduated last year you dummy," Téa said.

"Oh yeah, I forgot." Joey said shrugging his shoulders innocently.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Tristan said.

"What did you say?"

"Since when are you deaf?" Duke asked, narrowly dodging Joey's fist.

"I'll show you some…" Joey threatened.

Yugi, Téa and Bakura continued walking as Miho tried to keep Joey away from Tristan and Duke.

"I have to turn right here," Bakura said, "Bye guys!"

"Bye Bakura," Yugi and Téa said, simultaneously once again, causing them both to blush again.

"Bye Bakura!" Miho exclaimed from afar, waving Bakura goodbye.

Yugi and Téa walked further alone. They didn't say much; it was a kind of awkward. As soon as they reached the Kame Game Shop, Yugi said a brief goodbye and entered his home, leaving Téa alone on the street.

She sighed deeply and made her way home. She wanted to tell Yugi how she felt about him, but for some reason she couldn't. Something deep within her withheld her from doing it and that while she was normally so confident.

* * *

**Yay, it's OVER 9000! 10000 actually :P**

**Come on people, I would really like some more reviews! Pretty please?**


	5. Chapter 4

**Time for #4**

**What is the chapter all about? To much to mention! So just read and review afterwards.**

**Now comes the part I must do a disclaimer, even though I've said in the last few chapter that I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh and I know it didn't change when I was asleep this night...**

**Anyways**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, I only own my OC's**

* * *

Chapter 4:

* * *

He was playing with an expensive looking ring. A ruby-inlaid golden ring with engravings on the side. Once in a while the ruby on the ring would discolor and become emerald green, but then it would instantly color back to its original form. He thought about how he'd obtained his prize, but was interrupted by the sound of knocking on his office door.

"Enter," he groaned, and a short, black-haired man marched in.

"Strickland, you better have a very convincing excuse to bother me during this emotional retrospect of good old times," Stanford said furiously.

"Sir, we have a slight problem," Strickland said, flinching slightly from his angry boss.

"Yes?"

"The boy you, ehr… mistreated, he… he is… dying." Strickland said, ashamed about the fact that this monster was his boss.

Stanford looked on his watch and said, "Well, that surprises me. He held out longer than I thought." He stood up laughing and made his way to the specially decorated room for victims of his boredom infections.

"Sir, he died just a few seconds ago, his heart couldn't take it anymore. The electrical shocks were just too much," a man in a white lab coat said.

"That's too bad for him, but no problem for me. Stand aside please," Stanford said as he placed his ring on the dead boy's forehead. The ring glowed green for a few seconds and a bright green light filled the room.

"Well, that is that," Stanford said. "Now Strickland!" he yelled.

Strickland quickly entered the room.

"Sir?" he asked, trying to avoid looking to the dead boy.

"Oh, Strickland, don't be such a baby. The boy is dead, I'm sure he wouldn't mind someone looking at him now," Stanford teased.

'It's official now, the man is crazy,' Strickland thought.

"Now Strickland, tell Clifford to dump this body."

"Yes… sir."

* * *

"A very good morning students!" Mr. Tanaka said lively. "I'm sure you are ready to spend some time with your favorite homeroom teacher." He looked through the classroom, content and well rested. "Now I have a few announcements to make."

The few students who were still chatting with their neighbors started to pay attention, something which gladdened Mr. Tanaka. He didn't feel like yelling today, so it was nice his class was cooperative for once.

"First of all, tomorrow will be School Picture Day, so you better look your Sunday best tomorrow!"

There were some muffled reactions on Mr. Tanaka's words, complaining about how much they hated school pictures, or telling one another how much they liked it.

"Secondly, there will be an excursion coming up this year so I want you to take this form to your parents."

Mr. Tanaka started to distribute the forms he mentioned, as someone knocked on the door.

"What now?" Mr. Tanaka asked out loud.

Principal Matsumoto walked in with two persons in tow.

"Is that..?" Joey asked with his mouth wide open.

"Yeah," Yugi confirmed as surprised as Joey was.

"Please don't tell me you have two more students for my class Mr. Matsumoto." Mr. Tanaka wailed. "I can barely survive with this much students."

"You have the smallest class, Mr. Tanaka; there is no room in the other classes," Mr. Matsumoto said. "Don't worry though, these students signed in on the finish line. I assure you, these will be the last two new students."

Mr. Tanaka sighed deeply, rubbing his temples with his index fingers. "Alright, alright."

"Good," Mr. Matsumoto said. "Good luck with your class, Mr. Tanaka." He closed the door behind him and couldn't withstand a chuckle.

"Would the two new students please introduce themselves?" Mr. Tanaka asked.

First up was a girl with long black hair, a slight tan, and brown eyes. "I'm Beth Dabney; I'm from the USA."

Bakura poked Nicolas. "Do you know her?"

"No, I don't." Nicolas whispered and watched the beautiful girl step aside for a more tanned boy with platinum-blond hair.

"I'm Marik Ishtar," he said, "and I recently moved from Egypt to Japan."

* * *

"What now Strickland?" Stanford sounded very irritated by his employee.

"Clifford has done what you asked sir." Strickland said.

"Oh, really, where did he dump the body?"

"Well, he didn't dump it… he stored it."

"Stored it? Where?" Stanford asked.

"In the cooler."

"The cooler in the basement? The place where I keep my pork chops and chicken legs?"

"Yes…"

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, sir."

"And people say I'm crazy!" Stanford exclaimed indignantly. "What kind of sick person stores bodies next to his boss's pork chops? What kind of a barbarian must you be to do such a thing!"

"It was not where I came for sir."

"Oh, what did you came for then?"

"I wanted to ask if you really want to go through with your plan, sir. It doesn't feel right."

Stanford stared at his employee for a few moments before bursting out of laughter. Suddenly he went very serious again, saying, "Do you doubt me, Strickland?"

"No, sir, but…"

"Then get out of here and do as you're told!" he shouted.

Strickland raced out of the room smacking the door shut on his way out.

* * *

"Run, you lazy slackers! Move it, move it!" Mr. Koizumi, the school's sports teacher, yelled through his megaphone.

"Got to love P.E." Joey said sarcastically, sweeping sweat from his forehead.

"It's a nice welcome gift for Marik," Duke joked.

The joke wasn't appreciated by Marik, though, who hit Duke on the back of his head.

"You should talk less," Nicolas said, "talking increases fatigue."

"How does he manage to keep on running at this pace?" Joey asked incredulously. "Is he some kind of robot?"

"I'd say he's a sportsman," Bakura said panting heavily.

"This isn't going fast enough!" Mr. Koizumi barked through his beloved megaphone. "Faster, faster!"

"This teacher is getting on my nerves!" Tristan complained. "I hope P.E. is almost over by now."

After ten more minutes of running, Mr. Koizumi decided that it was enough for today.

"Next time," he said, "I want to see more commitment! You all run like little toddlers! Now go, you all look like you can use a hot shower."

"Finally!"

As the boys exited the locker room, they noticed that the girls already had left. The girls were lucky: they had a more considerate sports teacher.

"Looks like we're walking home without the girls," Joey stated.

"Not only without the girls, but also without me and Duke." Tristan said. "We're going to apply for a job at a local supermarket."

"Why would you want a job Duke?" Yugi asked confused.

"I… I mean… Tristan and I lost a bet and now we have to work at…" he shuddered.

"You know which supermarket…" Tristan said shivering in horror.

"I hope you don't mean…"

"I do."

"Good luck then," Yugi said.

"Yeah, you'll need it!" Joey yelled after Tristan and Duke as they walked away.

"Poor guys," Bakura said, "that place is really disgusting."

"I don't feel any pity at all." Joey said, holding back his laugh.

* * *

Téa and Miho walked home with the new girl, Beth. Her home was close to Miho's. She said that her mother had died and that she had one sister who lived with her at her father's house. She said that her father was often off on a business trip and that her sister spent most of her time in the city.

"You know what?" Téa suddenly said. "We should have a sleepover at my house this weekend."

"Miho loves sleepovers!" Miho squealed in joy. "We could go shopping the day after!" she suggested.

"My parents will be gone for the weekend, so we are in full control of the house."

"I don't know…" Beth said hesitantly. "I'm not really a fan of sleepovers."

"Oh come one it will be so much fun!" Téa said encouragingly.

"Oh alright." Beth finally gave in after some intense begging from Miho's part. "It's not like I've anything better to do."

"Great, this upcoming weekend is going to be so much fun!"

* * *

"What on earth does she think she is doing!" a man furiously yelled through an underwater hall. "Marcus! Marcus get down here!"

A large muscled man ran in through a side entrance.

"Yes, my lord, what is it."

"What is it? What do you think?" the man said. His face now revealed itself in the dim lighting. He was not even an adult; he was seventeen at most. His hair was long, reaching to his lower back, and was turquoise colored. His eyes were pale blue and they seemed to look right through the older man standing in front of him. His body slender in contrast to the older man's muscles. He pointed at the waterfall.

"What do you see right there?"

"That's Dith…" he was interrupted in his answer by the enraged teen.

"Yes! That's her! But I knew that since I was not blind last time I checked! My question is: What the hell is she doing there?"

"My lord, I don't know how to explain…"

"Then you better start thinking, because I'm running out of patience!"

"My lord, I…"

"Oh forget it, you're just as useless as Lucius. I know she asked your permission and I know you granted it. I know everything Marcus! Everything!"

"What will you do now?"

"The only thing I can do, you fool. It's time for me to make an appearance!"

"But my lord, you can't leave us now."

"Silence you fool! I need to concentrate, but first…"

He turned over to the waterfall.

"Sacred waters of my old home in the sea, I beseech thee. Hear to my cries and show me what I ask for, whether if it swims, walks or flies. Show me the thing I wish as I pray. Show me the place where my Dithanei will stay this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!"

* * *

"I hope you handed the papers I gave you yesterday to your parents?" Mr. Tanaka said slightly questioning. The class responded with some confirming mutters.

"Now you all might be wondering where we are headed…" Mr. Tanaka said building up the tension.

"…because I myself have absolutely no idea where we are going."

Some groans sounded from the back of the class.

"This weekend the school board will make a final decision. What I can say is that we will have lots of fun!"

He looked through the class, expecting some kind of cheering, but it was dead quiet.

The new students, Marik and Beth, were sitting in front of Bakura and Nicolas. For some reason, there was some kind of tension between Marik and Bakura, but Mr. Tanaka couldn't lay a finger on it. Nicolas and Beth however, were chatting like they'd been friends for a long time.

'I should keep an eye on those two,' Mr. Tanaka noted in his head. 'And I should keep an eye on Miho and Tristan too. Rumors say they might be dating and dating isn't allowed. I might be considered a nice teacher, but I'm not bending the rules for my students.'

He started explaining a few formulas. Nicolas and Beth were still talking to each other.

"Nicolas, Beth, detention for you two! I'll be seeing you two at the end of the day in here," he suddenly said in the middle of his explanation. "Now students, please be quiet so I can explain the rest of the formulas."

* * *

"This sucks!" Nicolas said angrily during lunch break.

"I told you you should stop talking and start listening before Mr. Tanaka got angry," Bakura said.

"I thought he would give a warning first."

"The angry look he shot you was the warning…"

"Yeah, but… Oh, forget it."

"Detention isn't that bad," Tristan said. "It's a great time to catch up on your sleep."

"I have better things to do than just sitting and doing nothing," Nicolas said venomously.

"Come on Nicolas, am I so bad to spend the afternoon with?" Beth pouted. Nicolas sighed deeply, but said nothing. After a few seconds, he grinned and shook his head.

"If you put it that way…" he said.

* * *

The day flew by. Yugi, Bakura, and Joey walked home with Miho and Téa, since Beth was in detention with Nicolas, and both Duke and Tristan had to go work at 'that horrid place'. Miho and Téa were mostly talking about their sleepover, and Bakura, Yugi, and Joey speculated about where they could be going to on excursion.

"I think the most obvious choice would be South Korea, it's close to Japan and it's an interesting country overall," Joey said.

"China would be cool," Bakura suggested, "walking over the Great Wall and all."

"We'll see," Yugi said, "as long as I can have fun, I don't really care."

"I'd be happy as long as Mr. Koizumi doesn't tag along. I wouldn't survive a day with that man." Joey said.

"This weekend is going to be so much fun!" Téa exclaimed. "I can't wait. Only two more days at school and then we can have our sleepover!"

* * *

"Should I walk you home?" Nicolas asked Beth when they got out of detention.

"You don't have to do that," Beth said smiling.

"It's no problem really," Nicolas said with a faint smile, "I can't let you walk home all by yourself."

"Aw, someone is getting mushy," Beth teased.

"Just walk," Nicolas said, grinning slightly.

"So…" Beth said. "Tell me something about yourself."

"Do I have to?" Nicolas said with a groan.

"Not if you don't want to." Beth said, slightly taken aback by Nicolas' reaction.

"There's not much to tell, really. My parents are both death, the only family I have left are my uncle and my brother."

"I'm sorry…" she said apologetically. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Nicolas sighed deeply, he felt his grief welling up. "I…"

"What happened?" she asked compassionately.

"My mother died when I was seven, when she gave birth to my brother. At that time I didn't know if I had to be happy for having a brother, or sad for losing my mother," Nicolas said swallowing the lump in his throat away. "Then, eight years ago, my grandfather died of a heart attack and my aunt was diagnosed with a deadly disease. My father became depressed and committed suicide and only a few weeks later, my aunt died." He lowered his head, trying to block his tears away. "My uncle took me and my brother in without hesitation. He was really fond of us when he and my aunt were friends and even more when they married."

"I don't know what to say…" Beth whispered softly.

"You don't have to say anything…" Nicolas said. "Thank you for listening." He smiled again.

Beth smiled back with a slight blush, something which Nicolas noticed.

"We're here," he said, pointing to an ordinary apartment.

"Thanks for walking me home," Beth said, smiling and still blushing slightly.

She turned to walk towards the door of the apartment.

"Don't I get a goodbye kiss?" Nicolas asked indignantly.

"Dream on!" Beth said, not turning around because she knew she was as red as a tomato.

Nicolas grinned and turned around, making his way home.

* * *

All was observed by one young boy sitting in front of his waterfall. His eyes were twitching as he saw Nicolas and Beth walking together, as he heard what they said.

"My lord?" someone asked, making the boy startle.

"Yes Marcus, what is it?"

"It is time my lord."

"Thank you Marcus, I will take care of it. Now leave."

"As you wish my lord."

* * *

**Someone is getting a bit pissed off, don't you guys think. Review please and tell me what you think.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Here is chapter 5, from now on things will start rolling. **

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, but I do own my OC's.**

* * *

Chapter 5:

* * *

'Master, are you really sure this is the right place?'

'You dare question me, Anaktón?'

'N-no, my lord.'

'This is the place.'

'Yes, my lord, but are you sure…?'

The shade's eyes glowed red and he screamed in agony.

'Since you're so uncertain about my qualities, I will take over your body and take care of this myself.'

The shade walked towards the collapsed tomb.

'Hah, nature is against me once more. Not for long, though.'

He reached out for the stones blocking his way. He touched the large boulders, concentrated, and suddenly his hand could go through the stones. He walked straight ahead, now unhindered, down the stairs, into a large underground hall. There he found an open place; he undid his dematerialization and looked around him. In front of him he saw a large wall with an eye carved on it.

'The Eye of Wdjat… not as impressive as I thought it would be.'

He looked into a gigantic hole in the ground, his eyes trying to pierce the unending darkness beneath him. He set his foot on the edge and jumped into the unending tunnel of darkness. As he fell he gathered an orb of light around him and suddenly he was levitating. He looked around, not seeing anything but the darkness completely surrounding him.

'Pathetic,' he thought.

"By the power granted to me by my ancestors, I will undo the magic at work here!"

The darkness started to lift. It was replaced by light. He now could see everything tremble around him.

'This is more like it. Now let's go to the bottom.'

A light flashed and traveled down the hole with the shade at the speed of light itself.

At the bottom he materialized once again and looked upon the treasures he'd just retrieved.

'The Millennium Items… Just as planned.'

* * *

"My lord?"

"What now, Marcus?"

"The people have been worrying about you. They are anxious to see you, my lord. They think you've fallen ill, or something bad has happened to you."

"Tell the children that I'm perfectly fine, but I'm very busy shaping their future."

Marcus' eyes drifted towards the large stone desk. Nine squares were filled now, two with cards and the other seven…

"My lord! Are those the…"

"Yes Marcus, the famed Millennium Items are in my possession, just as planned."

"And what will my lord do with them?"

"I will use them, of course. I need them to reawaken the powers of our ancestors."

Marcus gasped upon hearing his master's plan.

"My lord, think of the consequences if you fail! The entire world could be destroyed!"

"I will not fail Marcus!" he sighed. "But before we continue this discussion, I will need your help."

"What is it my lord?"

The boy pointed to the floor. "Do you see those carvings there?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Just do what I tell you to do and you'll be fine."

"I-I do n-not understand m-my lord…" the one named Marcus stumbled.

The boy cupped his hands and filled them with the water from the waterfall. He let the water flow into the carvings on the ground and entered the circle it formed. The water seeped through the small canals and into the entire circle and the nine pointed star; the water started to glow a bright shade of blue.

"Listen carefully, Marcus. I can't exit this magic circle without breaking it, so you will need to hand the things I need over to me."

"Yes, my lord, what is it that you desire?"

"Bring me the Millennium Puzzle."

Marcus hesitantly removed the Puzzle from the desk and brought it towards the magical barrier, the barrier that separated the outside world from the environment within the circle. He slowly pushed the Puzzle into the bright blue light, until he couldn't see it anymore. He then waited patiently, but anxious to know what was going on inside. After two minutes of suspense, his master's voice finally sounded again.

"It is done. Marcus, take the Puzzle and put it back at the same place you got it from."

Marcus silently took the Puzzle as it emerged unchanged, but different, out of the magical barrier. He placed it back on his master's desk.

"Now pick up the Millennium Ring and bring it to me."

Marcus frowned. He didn't have the slightest clue of what his master was doing. He brought the Ring to his master, whom he still couldn't see.

His master received the Ring at the other side of the barrier. He placed it in the middle of the circle he was standing in. He sat down in position and concentrated deeply. Everything around him went dark, he was no longer in the normal world; he was in the Shadow Realm now. He opened his eyes and scanned everything around him.

He was suddenly disturbed by a monster like voice shattering through the shadows.

* * *

"Who disturbs me?"

"I have come to gaze upon the mighty Zorc," the boy said contemptuously, "who doesn't seem as mighty as he claims he is."

This remark resulted in series of growls and shrieks. These dreadful sounds would make a normal person run for his life.

The boy smirked and only a second later he was within the circle he'd made a few minutes ago. This time he wasn't alone, however. In front of him stood a figure, a shade who somewhat looked like his former host. His hair was white, almost grey, and a big mess. His skin pale, a little gray. His clothes were torn, his pants jagged.

"What do you want?" he hissed.

The boy smirked even more now, enjoying to see such a shapeless person in front of him.

"It's quite simple actually. I want you on my side."

The spirit looked up with disbelief in his eyes. He laughed hard, slightly maniacally.

"I'm on nobody's side, except my own."

"I can release you from the shadows keeping you bound."

The spirit's eyes narrowed, scanning the person standing in front of it thoroughly.

"How do you think you can do that?"

"It's quite simple really. I could either destroy the Shadow Realm…" he said, resulting in the spirit laughing even harder than before.

"…or I could do it the easier and safer way."

The spirit raised his eyebrow.

"I guess you would like me to swear allegiance to you then? Well, I'm not going to. I only serve master Zorc."

"Indeed you do, but right now he is the only one keeping you back. Horakhty defeated Zorc, not you; why would you suffer together with Zorc?"

"I am Zorc!" the spirit yelled angrily.

"Actually you're not. You were a person in ancient Egypt, but your mind and soul were corrupted by Zorc. He wiped your memory clean and replaced it with his memory. You have no will, no memories of your own, but if you swear allegiance to me… You shall be free!"

"How can I be free without a host?"

"You can't have a body of your own, that is true, but your own will: I can give you that."

"When I swear allegiance to you Zorc will take over," the spirit said anxiously.

"I'm not afraid of Zorc; he is a weakling."

Everything darkened from the moment those words were spoken. The spirit changed into a hideous monster with red eyes peering down on the relatively small boy. The boy still sat in lotus position and looked at Zorc defiantly.

"You shall regret those words, puny human!" Zorc said, enraged, but the boy seemed to ignore him, muttering some words under his breath.

"Die!" Zorc yelled as he unleashed all his fury on the boy.

The smoke slowly lifted and the boy seemed to be unharmed as he still sat at the same spot. He slowly stood up and suddenly jumped on Zorc's head, how it was possible he could jump this high Zorc didn't know. The boy raised his right hand; the silver bracelet he wore on his hand started to glow.

"Zorc!" he said powerfully. "I will separate you from this spirit and I will lock all of your darkness away in the place where my forefathers contained the evil beings of old. Never will you see this world again. Only if the greatest evil of evils succeeds in overtaking the world might you have a chance of reappearing."

An explosion followed, leaving only the boy within the glowing blue circle.

"It is done," he said tiredly. The blue light faded and he collapsed on the ground.

"My lord!" Marcus yelled worriedly. He stood next to his master in a matter of seconds. "My lord, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," the boy responded weakly. "Put this back where it belongs." he said, giving the Millennium Ring to his servant.

"You can go after that, I will need some sleep now."

"Yes, my lord, that is very wise of you. You will need some rest."

* * *

"Good morning, class!" Mr. Tanaka said cheerfully. "It's Thursday already; time flows by."

"Only to stop flowing during math," Tristan whispered to Duke.

"Now I hope you all have done your homework, because I'm going to check on it." Mr. Tanaka said with a broad smile.

"I want you to come up to my desk when I say your name. Yugi, you can show me your homework first."

Yugi walked up to Mr. Tanaka's desk, showed his homework, and was allowed to leave again.

"Very good, Yugi. Joey, you're next."

It took Mr. Tanaka the entire lesson to go through everyone's homework. It was quite a waste, since everyone had done it.

* * *

Next was another history lesson from Ms. Akiyama. She pattered inside on her insanely high heels she wore to look taller.

"Class, listen up!" she said. "Today I will show you the thesis from Professor Hawkins, as I promised I would last lesson."

She handed out a few copies of the shortened version of the thesis; it was still five pages long.

"Now I'm giving you an assignment. Write a summary of this thesis in your own words, I want no copy/paste work!"

A student raised her hand.

"Yes?"

"Are we allowed to work in pairs?"

"Very well, but just this time only, because it's the first week at school. You will hand them in Tuesday."

The class erupted from total silence to total disorder as everyone was trying to get a partner to work with for this assignment.

"I call dibs on Yug!" Joey said triumphantly.

"You can't call dibs on someone, Joey!" Téa scolded.

"You're just angry you weren't earlier." Joey teased, leaving Téa blushing.

"Shall we do this assignment together Nicolas?" Beth asked shyly.

"Sure, looking forward to it," Nicolas said cheerfully.

Bakura was left with Marik; neither of them were very happy about it. Bakura was still angry at Marik because of what Marik had made his yami do to him.

"Yeah…" Bakura said, "Really looking forward to it…"

* * *

"Thirty push-ups! Right now!" Mr. Koizumi yelled through his megaphone, an accessory he always carried with him. His plan for the first few lessons was to teach them not to mess with him, before they even think about messing with him.

"Thirty?" Duke cried pitifully.

"Did I say thirty? I meant forty push-ups and then you can run two more laps around the field!"

"Doesn't this guy have any mercy?"

"I don't think he knows that word," Bakura said, exhausted.

The students were allowed to go back to the locker room once they'd finished running the last two laps.

Tristan dropped down on one of the benches and saw Joey collapse on the floor.

"To tired to stand up," Joey said, "Must lay down for a sec."

"Mr. Koizumi is a monster," Duke said, resting his head against one of the lockers.

"At least the warm showers make up for it," Nicolas said, taking some shampoo and shower gel from his locker and making his way for one of the showers.

"How can you not be tired?" Joey asked incredulously.

"I sport," he said. "That means you do some sort of physical training, so your condition gets better and you won't get tired as easily with P.E."

"Well, I sport too," Bakura said, "but I'm still tired."

"Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm tired, too, but I'm not showing it."

After some time, everyone had showered. Nicolas was putting on his shirt, Yugi was done already, while Bakura was still standing in his underwear.

A bright white light suddenly filled the room and someone started to scream loudly, as if he were in serious pain.

* * *

The underwater hall was suddenly filled in a bright white light.

"What the…!" Marcus exclaimed as he saw the bright light shining into his side room. He ran through a few hallways. The light was getting brighter and brighter. He came at the door that led into his master's sanctuary, but he was completely blinded by the intensity of the bright white lights shining inside of the room.

"My lord!" he shouted, "Are you in there my lord?"

There was no answer, and Marcus became increasingly panicked. He walked through the room with his left hand in front of his eyes, almost falling down into the water.

"My lord!"

Still no answer. Marcus felt his strength fading; his legs were starting to feel numb. He now stumbled on further into the intense light. Everything around him was white; it was starting to hurt his head. He closed his eyes and stumbled forward. He eventually couldn't feel his legs anymore and fell. He felt his head hit the floor, and everything went dark.

* * *

**I feel so bad for cutting the story of here... wait I don't. Review please, tell me what you think so far.**

**Next chapter will contain some answers to all the questions you might have about the story so far.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Here is chapter 6, I had it finished sooner than I thought I would.**

**For those still afraid of Zorc: He is a bit busy figuring out how to escape a prison that cannot be escaped from.**

**For those afraid of Kuriboh: Why would you be afraid of Kuriboh? He is so small and cuddly...**

**DISCLAIMER: I'm 16... Of course I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh... I only own my OC's!**

* * *

Chapter 6:

* * *

As fast as the light appeared, it went away. Nicolas shook his head a few times, blinked, and saw Bakura clinging to his stomach, dropping himself onto the floor. He was screaming like a being tortured, ripped apart from the inside. Tears spilled from his eyes and trickled along his cheeks to the ground. Yugi was grabbing for his head, feeling an intense pain inside it. It seemed that the rest were unharmed, a bit dizzy at most.

"Bakura!" Tristan yelled as he slid next to him to check on him.

"Yug! Are you alright?" Joey asked, receiving a hesitant nod in reply.

"Bakura is in a worse state," Yugi said. "Worry about him, not me."

Nicolas now felt nauseous and very dizzy; it forced him to drop back on the bench. Duke gave him a worried look.

"Nothing wrong," Nicolas said, "just a bit dizzy."

Tristan suddenly gasped in shock. He flinched away from Bakura.

"What's wrong ,Tristan?" Joey asked.

"Look there!" Tristan yelled with widened eyes, pointing to Bakura's chest. The golden object shone brightly. It glowed yellow for a second before returning to its normal golden color.

"How is that possible?" Joey yelled.

"Guys…" Yugi said weakly, holding op an inverted pyramid in his hands.

"This doesn't make sense!" Tristan said confused. "We saw those things getting destroyed."

Bakura had gone silent, he slowly opened his eyes.

"What happened?" he asked, looking up to the shocked faces of everyone around. A few students looked very confused; they didn't understand a thing of what had just happened. They didn't know anything of Millennium Items and other things coming from their classmates' mouths. They picked up their stuff and got out of the room as fast as they could.

Bakura finally noticed the Millennium Ring hanging around his neck. His eyes widened in terror, he grew dreadfully afraid of what might happen to him now. He looked up to Yugi, his eyes begging to be saved from the horrible thing hanging around his neck.

'Horrible thing? Do you hate me that much,' someone said in his mind. Bakura felt his eyes sting as tears rolled down his cheeks once more. He screaming for help, but he couldn't produce a sound.

'Go away!' he yelled to the voice in his head.

'Go away? And leave you to be your weak self again? Never! You need me, Ryou; you need me as much as I need you.'

"Bakura, are you alright?" Joey said, shaking Bakura by the shoulders.

"H-he's back…" he said hoarsely, tears still running from his eyes like a wild river.

The group looked to each other, knowing exactly who Bakura meant. Only Nicolas was sitting on the bench, not knowing who this was about.

"Who's back?" he asked.

"Bakura's dark side, that's who!" Joey spat.

"He'll hurt me," Bakura cried. "He'll hurt me like he did before."

'Yes, I will, little Ryou. I will hurt you a lot, and I will enjoy it!'

'Shut up!' Bakura screamed inside of his head. It worked, for now. His darker side was silent.

"We should get you dressed up." Tristan said. Bakura was still in his underwear.

"Where did Marik go all of a sudden?" Joey asked.

"He left before that weird light," Nicolas said. He stood up and opened Bakura's locker and threw Bakura's clothes at Tristan, who was helping Bakura onto his feet. Bakura was still a bit shaky. No wonder – he had been confronted by a monster.

'I wonder why he is so afraid. I think I'm going to do some research into that,' he thought.

After they brought the terrified Bakura home, Yugi and Joey walked towards the Kame Game Shop.

"So Yug…" Joey said.

"He isn't in the Puzzle, Joey," Yugi said a bit sadly.

"Oh…" He sounded disappointed. Yugi knew Joey would like to see Atem as much as he himself did, but Atem was gone: his spirit wasn't bound to the Puzzle anymore.

"One side of me wishes he was, but the other side is glad that he isn't. I mean, sure, I would love to see him back, but he doesn't belong here," Yugi said.

"…" Joey wanted to say something, but instead he just nodded.

"Why did this have to happen now…?" Yugi complained. "I was starting to get more used to him not being here and now this happens. I feel like I'm in the same spot as I was right after the duel."

"Yug," Joey said, putting his hand on Yugi's shoulder, "Like I once said, Yug, he is still within our hearts. I know it isn't easy, but you should remember that and know that he will always be a part of you."

"Thanks, Joey, you're right…" Yugi said, biting his lips and blocking a tear.

"It's what friends do." Joey said with a smile. A little smile maybe, but a genuine one.

* * *

"Welcome, Miss," a man in a suit said. "My boss is awaiting you."

"I know he is," Ishizu Ishtar commented. "Didn't he invite me?"

"Oh, ehr… you're right," the man stumbled, embarrassed, and he lead the woman to the office of his boss.

'I wonder why Seto Kaiba would want to speak to me. Last time I checked he would rather have me shut up than talk to him,' Ishizu thought.

She'd moved to Domino City with her two brothers recently. Marik was going to Domino High, and Odion had a job as security guard at the museum, while she was looking for a new job. She was doing just that when the phone rang and Kaiba asked her to come over, saying that he had something important to talk about.

"It's right here Miss," the man in the suit said. She didn't know the man. Actually she only knew three people here at Kaiba Corp. Seto himself, little Mokuba and Seto's most trusted employee, Roland.

She walked through Kaiba's office with the man in the suit.

"Mr. Kaiba," he said. "Your visitor is here."

"Thank you, Hugo," Kaiba said.

The man gave a curt nod and sped out of the room, leaving Ishizu with his boss.

Seto turned around in his chair and faced Ishizu, who sat down on a chair in front of Seto's desk.

"So we meet again, Kaiba," Ishizu said.

"I didn't call you here to chat, Ishizu," Seto said straightforwardly. "This meeting is purely to do business." He looked Ishizu straight in the eyes.

"What is it Kaiba?" she asked.

"A few days ago I had to fire one of my employees for not doing his job right. I wanted to…"

"Are you offering me a job, Kaiba?" Ishizu interrupted.

"…Yes…" he said curtly.

"Why would you offer me a job?" Ishizu asked confused.

"I have my reasons…" Seto said mysteriously.

"What are those reasons?"

"For one, you seem to have an excellent intuition…"

"Why would that be of any importance?"

"If you'd just let me finish, you wouldn't have to ask me all these questions."

Ishizu nodded and gestured for Seto to continue.

"I want you to buy shares of other companies, keep an eye on the stock market, that sort of thing. People need a good intuition for that and I know you are very intuitive. Besides, you've proven to be trustworthy, so I know my money is safe with you."

"And why would I work for you?" Ishizu asked.

"Because you need the job?" Seto asked rhetorically. He knew Ishizu was looking for a job; that's why he called her in the first place. He found Ishizu to be unusually appealing, but he couldn't tell her that. He would look like a fool, and besides, he had better things to do than to get involved in such things.

"I do need the job…" Ishizu said considering the offer Seto had just made her.

Seto tapped his fingers on his desk impatiently, waiting for her to answer.

"When do I start?" Ishizu asked.

"I will have an office prepared for you tomorrow," he said, his face still as blank as ever.

Ishizu nodded and stood up, preparing to leave.

"I will see you tomorrow then, Kaiba."

She entered the elevator and pushed the button which would bring her to the main floor. Suddenly a blinding light filled the elevator, and she felt something on her neck. As fast as the light had appeared, it disappeared again.

Ishizu looked into the mirror and was shocked by what she saw. On her neck hung the Millennium Necklace.

* * *

Marik dropped down on his bed. He muttered some bad words about his sports teacher and how much he hated him. He reached for his schoolbag, planning to do some homework.

A bright white light filled his room, shocking him so much that he fell out of bed. He gave a small yelp as he landed on something hard. The light disappeared and Marik rubbed his now sore back. He turned around to see what had caused his pain: it was the Millennium Rod.

'That thing was gone, wasn't it?' Marik thought. He placed the object carefully on his desk.

'I should show it to Ishizu when she's back. She'll know what to do.'

* * *

"Ah, Yugi!" Mr. Muto exclaimed when his grandson walked through the door, accompanied by Joey Wheeler. "I have someone one the phone for you."

"Who is it, Grandpa?"

"Oh, I'm sure you will know as soon as you take this call."

Yugi raised an eyebrow and took the phone into his hands. "Yugi-boy, is that you?" he heard through the phone.

"Pegasus?" Yugi asked surprised.

"Uh, oh." Joey said, "Pegasus contacting Yugi is a bad thing. Weird things happen when Yugi and Pegasus speak to each other." He thought back to Duelist Kingdom and the whole Orichalcos affair. He thought of Mai, whom he hadn't seen since.

"I'm calling you for a reason, Yugi-boy; you see, half an hour ago something weird happened. My Millennium Eye appeared in the drawer of my desk, after I saw a weird light shining from it."

"Something like that happened to me too!" Yugi exclaimed, but calmed down as soon as he thought about what happened to Bakura.

"I see…" Pegasus said. "How strange, I thought they were gone."

"So did I, but the contrary has been proven."

"Indeed, Yugi-boy," Pegasus said. "Well, that was all I wanted to know. Thank you for this useful information."

"Uh, no problem… I guess."

Pegasus hang up after that, leaving Yugi more confused than he was before the phone call.

'Why would he thank me? I didn't give him anything useful… What is Pegasus up to now?'

* * *

His steps echoed through his underwater sanctuary, his long hair slightly waving in the soft breeze. He suddenly saw someone lying on the ground; that someone was the only one of his servants who was allowed to come here.

"Marcus!" he said sternly, walking closer to his second.

As he got closer, he started to get more worried.

'Ugh, not again…' he thought. 'Diocles dying was bad enough!'

"Marcus!" he said, poking his servant with his foot. He felt relieved as his servant slowly opened his eyes.

"What in the world are you doing here? You aren't allowed to sleep here! Even I don't sleep here!"

"My lord, let me explain!" Marcus begged at his master's feet. He nodded, giving him permission to speak.

"This afternoon, a bright light shone from your sanctuary. I was worried something was happening to you. As I got inside, I was blinded by the intense light, and I tripped," Marcus went silent after that, looking upwards and waiting for his master's verdict.

He sighed, but scolded. "You should have known that I wasn't inside! I sleep during the daytime. I'm only down here at night." His eyes trailed off to his desk. A lot of Millennium Items were missing. The only two left were the Millennium Key and Scales.

"You must have noticed that some Items are missing, Marcus?"

"Oh no, did someone steal them my lord?"

"Your naivety surprises me from time to time."

"Wait… the light… it was a spell?"

"Indeed, it was, and I think it worked perfectly, but to find out…" he said, walking towards his waterfall. He recited the chant he always used to activate the waterfall's magic and within a few moments he was watching the day's events.

"Perfect!" he said, watching the Millennium Items appear to their former masters.

"Why is that boy crying?" Marcus asked, pointing to a white haired boy.

"He is afraid of his Item's spirit. Something I will resolve later this night."

"Resolve, my lord?"

"The spirit is under my control, Marcus…"

"Oh…"

There was a short silence.

"I don't want to see you in here tomorrow night," the master suddenly said.

"Why is that, if I may ask?" Marcus asked humbly.

"I have personal business to attend to, Marcus. Now go."

"As you wish, my lord," Marcus said, bowing down and leaving for his own room to rest.

A man smirked as he eavesdropped around the corner.

'I will be there,' he thought. 'So will the entire tribe.'

* * *

**Yay! Social unrest!**

**Please review, tell me what you think, ask questions about the fic. Ask for advise about your relationship, anything! As long as you review! **

**WARNING: Ciloron not a proffessional psychologist so I'm not bound to confidentiality!**

**Beth: Ignore Ciloron please he is just being silly.  
Mr. Tanaka: But be a good student and review!**


	8. Chapter 7

**Time for chapter 7, the shortest of all the chapters. Don't worry, next one will be larger. **

**Enjoy reading it!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, I only own my OC's.**

* * *

Chapter 7:

* * *

The annoying sound of the alarm clock woke Beth up from a deep slumber. She rubbed her eyes and slipped out of bed.

'Great,' she thought, 'it's Friday. Tonight… sleepover… ugh.'

She stepped over her suitcase and made her way to the bathroom.

While eating her breakfast she looked to a piece of jewelry on the table. The headband was made of a silver metal and it was imbedded with blue and purple gemstones.

'It's a gift,' she could still hear him say. 'To remember your father by.'

She stroked the piece of jewelry with two of her fingers.

'Put it on, I would like to see you with it.'

She took it into her hand and brought it closer to her heart.

'It looks great… You always do.'

* * *

"Good morning, class!" Mr. Ito said lively. "I hope you're in for an English lesson."

The class didn't respond, but watched Mr. Ito unpack his bag. Mr. Ito was a very young English teacher; he was only 24 years old. He was a bit odd though, talking to himself a lot, but he was a nice teacher overall. The students considered him a good English teacher, not that it was so hard for him; he had a British mother.

The lesson consisted of doing some grammar and checking homework assignments. It was quite boring, but not as boring as Mr. Tanaka's lessons. Everyone sighed in relief when the school bell rang.

Bakura and Nicolas pushed their tables towards Yugi and Joey's. The group got together during every lunch.

"Beth, listen," Téa said excitedly. "I asked Joey's sister Serenity if she would come over this weekend and her mother let her come!"

"Serenity is coming here?" Joey asked genuinely surprised. "That's great!"

"Yeah, that's great!" Duke said, only to get a smack on his head from Joey.

"You're awfully quiet Tristan," Téa said.

"What do you mean?"

"She means that she expected you to jump up on hearing Serenity's name." Duke said casually, receiving another slap from Joey.

"Why does everyone keep thinking that I'm still falling for Serenity? I have someone else to worship at the moment," Tristan said semi-angry, but winked at Miho when talking about her. She responded a bit jumpy though, as it caught her by surprise.

"Miho thinks you shouldn't do that at school Tristan. What if teachers see Tristan winking at Miho?" she scolded in her Miho-like way.

"Anyway, it will be absolutely great. The four of us together will have so much fun!"

Beth smiled faintly; _his_ voice was still going through her head.

'You look absolutely radiant.'

She tried to follow the conversation between Nicolas and Yugi, but she was way too distracted to hear what they said.

'So beautiful.'

She felt like she was going crazy, hearing voices from people who weren't even there.

'So fragile.'

She tried to ignore it, but it didn't really work. Or was she focusing on it to much?  
She was taken out of her thoughts when she suddenly heard Yugi say something.

"So Marik, you wanted to say something to me this morning?" Yugi asked.

"Yes! Yesterday I was at home and suddenly there was a bright light…"

"…and you found the Millennium Rod?" Yugi finished for him.

"Yes, how did you know?" Marik asked.

Yugi pointed to his chest; there hung the Millennium Puzzle on a chain.

"How could I have missed that!" Téa and Marik both said.

"I guess you got used to me wearing it," Yugi chuckled.

"Does that mean that…" Téa said, but she stopped talking when Yugi shook his head.

"No, he is gone and he won't come back."

"Ishizu has her Millennium Necklace again." Marik said.

"Pegasus has the Millennium Eye."

"It seems that all items have returned to their former owners."

"Bakura, is your Ring back?" Téa asked with concern.

Bakura nodded slowly; he was still shocked by what had happened the day before, but besides the voice he had heard, nothing had happened to him, yet. He started to think that he had hallucinated, that he only thought his yami was back because of the sudden appearance of the Millennium Ring.

"What about…" Joey shook his head, indicating to Téa that she should stop talking.

"It's okay Joey," Bakura said shakily, "they should know."

"Is he really back?" Téa asked concerned.

"Yes, I think so. I heard his voice, but it has been quiet since yesterday."

"That's a good thing right?" Téa asked.

"I guess so…" Bakura said. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, we're going to help you." Nicolas said, smiling warmly.

'Oh, what an insolent little weakling, isn't he, little Ryou?'

Bakura petrified upon hearing the spirit's voice, his yami's voice, again.

'Are you still afraid little Ryou? You should be! You can't even imagine the pain I will cause you.'

'That is enough spirit!' Bakura heard another voice in his head. It was certain now; he was going crazy.

'What now?' he heard his yami ask.

'I forbid you to do harm upon anyone, unless I command you to do so.'

'What? You can't do that!'

'Are you this ungrateful? Is this the gratitude I receive for freeing you from the shadows? Should I send you back from where you came, to reside there for all eternity?'

Bakura heard his yami growl and then… it went quiet. He then saw everyone staring at him worriedly.

"Are you alright Bakura? You seem paler than usual."

"I think I am," Bakura said, cheerful all of the sudden. "Someone is containing my yami; he can't do any harm to me, or you!"

"But he is still inside you…" Tristan said.

"Yes, but that doesn't matter that much if he can't do any harm."

'Yet…' his yami added in his head.

* * *

Beth arrived at Téa's late in the afternoon, just like they had agreed on. Téa opened the door and invited her in. Miho was already there; she'd already unpacked her stuff and inflated her airbed.

"Now we only have to wait for Serenity," Téa said.

"Miho thinks Joey's sister is very nice, but Miho hasn't seen her that much."

As soon as Téa was about to say something a horn sounded out on the street. Serenity got out of the taxi and waited for the driver to give her her luggage.

"Serenity!" Téa exclaimed as she opened the door.

"Téa!" she yelled as she dropped her -heavy- suitcase on the poor driver's feet.

The poor man didn't know what overcame him. From one moment everything was absolutely normal, then he hears a girl screaming in his ear and before he knows it he finds himself in agony as a heavy suitcase hits his feet.

"Oh no! I'm so sorry!" the young girl apologized.

"It's quite alright," the driver said, biting his lips. "I will be fine."

Serenity knew the driver only said that to be polite, but there wasn't much she could do about what happened.

"Although I would really appreciate it if you could remove your suitcase from my feet."

Serenity quickly took her suitcase and walked over to Téa, who had watched the whole thing from within the doorposts.

"Thank you for driving me here!" she yelled. "And sorry for your feet!"

"Sorry won't make the pain go away…" the driver muttered.

* * *

The girls stayed up late that night. They were talking about a variety of things, although Miho talked mostly about Tristan or shopping. Beth started to enjoy herself, commenting on questions the girls asked her and asking some questions herself. She liked Serenity a lot: she was such a lovely girl.

'She is so different from her brother.'

"Soooo…" Serenity said. "How are things with Yugi?"

Téa reddened. 'Stupid blush,' she thought.

"Every time I try to tell him how I feel for him I just…"

"You're afraid he will reject you?" Serenity asked.

"I'm not afraid of it, but I just can't say what I want to say."

"Joey was just like that with Mai you know… but he got over it."

"You'd better not mention Mai to Joey," Téa said.

"Why not? I thought they were friends."

"He didn't tell you what happened to her?"

Serenity shook her head and Téa started to tell about the Orichalcos and Dartz. Beth listened to it in awe; she was starting to admire Yugi for his courage, when Téa told about the sacrifice he made. The clock hit one AM when Téa finished telling about the Orichalcos and Mai.

"I never thought Mai would do such a thing…" Serenity said disappointed.

"She didn't do it on purpose Serenity. She was tricked by that creep Dartz."

"Miho is tired, I think we should go to sleep so we can go shopping tomorrow," Miho said yawning.

"You're right, Miho," Téa said. "We can talk more tomorrow."

* * *

The turquoise-haired boy sighed deeply and walked over to the waterfall in his deep underwater hall. This night would be a tough one; he had a someone to take care of.

"My lord?" he suddenly heard someone say behind him.

"Marcus? I thought I had commanded you not to come here this night?"

"I was making sure you were alright, my lord."

"No, you knew I would be fine… You want to know what I will be doing tonight," he stated.

"Yes… my lord."

"I will visit a certain runaway because I want some answers."

"My lord, I think you…"

"It would be a great opportunity to test how much my powers have grown lately."

"What do you mean, my lord?"

"Observe!" he said as he spread his arms widely. A mysterious mist rose up and Marcus saw his master slightly levitate. He slowly descended and sat in front of the waterfall as the mist slowly dissipated.

"Now look at the waterfall, Marcus."

Marcus was shocked by what he saw. "My lord… t-that's you!"

"Yes and no, Marcus. That is just a shade, the real me is right here, but he does look a lot like me, doesn't he?"

"My lord… why did you make a shade that looks identical to you?"

"I'd like to see how much I can do with my shades."

'His powers really have grown, but I'm not sure if I must be proud or afraid.'

"Now it would be a good time for you to leave."

"As you wish, my lord," Marcus said as he sped towards his room.

'Now Antístoicho, I will assume control of you.'

* * *

A seventeen year old boy walked through the streets of Domino City, his turquoise hair waving in the wind, his sharp eyes looking for his destination.

As soon as his target was in sight his entire appearance changed. He now had short black hair, a slight tan, and dark brown eyes.

'I'm Gary…' he practiced in his head.

'This will be a piece of cake.'

* * *

**Next chapter will contain some confrontations (obviously)**

**If you haven't noticed, I use Greek names for the shades' names. This has a reason, but that will be explained a lot later in the story. For those wondering about how long this story is going to be... I strive for at least 150,000 words, when I've reached that amount I will see how far the story has developed. I won't cut any corners with this story.**

**Stanford: Blah blah blah, I don't think the readers really care for that...  
Strickland: Please review and tell Ciloron what you thought about this relatively short chapter!**


	9. Chapter 8

**Time for chapter 8. It's quite the chapter. A lot will be happening, questions will be answered.**

**It is time for the illusive underwater teen to reveal himself, at least to some point.**

* * *

Chapter 8:

* * *

"So, Beth…" Téa whispered, not wanting to wake up Serenity or Miho who were vast asleep. "…you can't sleep either?"

"Mhm," Beth mumbled something Téa couldn't hear.

"What's wrong?" Téa asked with concern, after Beth flinched a little.

"I don't know…" Beth said unsurely. She sighed and then confessed, "I hear this voice in my head all the time."

Téa gave her a confused look.

"It's not that I'm crazy or something, at least I don't think I'm crazy…"

The doorbell rang, startling both Téa and Beth.

"Who could be at the door at this time of night?" Téa asked, perplexed by the fact that someone was at the door around two AM. "I'm going to check it out," she said bravely.

"Do you think that would be a good idea? I mean… what if it's some kind of burglar or maybe a murderer?" Beth asked, slightly freaking out.

"It could be important…" Téa said, slipping out of her bed. She slowly walked downstairs and flipped on the light switch. She looked out of the window and saw a man standing in front of the door. He wore a hat and a large black coat, for all she could see. She slightly opened the door and asked, "Who are you? What are you doing here in the middle of the night?" She sounded slightly demanding.

"I'm Gary Dabney, Beth's father. I need to talk to her about her sister!" the man, who claimed to be Beth's father, said. "Can I come in?"

Téa thought through her dilemma; she could let the man in and risk him being some bad guy, but then again, he knew Beth so he couldn't be so bad. She opened the door and the man walked inside.

"I will wait here," he said. "Could you get her for me?"

"Sure," Téa said and she tip-toed upstairs, hoping not to wake Serenity or Miho. They would freak out once they knew a stranger was standing in the hallway. She slowly opened the door and whispered, "Beth, come over here, it's important!"

Beth slowly got up and stepped towards the door.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It's your father, he says it's about your sister."

"M-my father…?" Beth stuttered.

"Yes, silly, your father. He really wants to talk to you."

Beth started to act jumpy. Why, Téa didn't know. She walked downstairs together with Beth and she was again eye-to-eye with the man claiming to be Beth's father. He was quite tall, he held his black hat in his hand. He had short black hair, a slight tan, and a nice set of chocolate-brown eyes. His long black coat hid a large part of his brown trousers. His polished black shoes made the image of a travelling businessman complete.

"I would like to have some privacy while speaking to my daughter," he said, suggesting Téa leave them alone for a while.

"Of course, sir, you can talk in the living room. I will go upstairs now," Téa said politely. She slowly walked upstairs, still conflicted by what was happening.

Gary and his daughter walked into the living room. As soon as they were there, 'Gary' started to change. His short black hair became long and turquoise. He became pale and somewhat shorter; he was now about Beth's height. His brown eyes changed to pale blue. His expression was stern, if not very angry; his turquoise eyebrows were frowned. His clothing had changed too. He was now wearing white trousers, grayish-blue boots, white, marine blue, and turquoise robes, and a large turquoise cloak.

Beth petrified, swallowing hard now that she was standing in front of the person she had defied by coming to Domino City. She felt his gaze burning through her soul; she felt like she was going to throw up.

He said nothing; he just stared at her, like he was waiting for her to say something.

She felt tears prickling in the corners of her eyes, and all of the sudden she fell on her knees and started to sob uncontrollably.

There was still no response from the elder teen, someone she had known for a long time.

"I'm sorry," she repeatedly said in between some sobs. She looked up to meet his gaze. His expression had changed from angry to compassionate, but that didn't mean that everything was alright now. She knew the boy standing in front of her was ever changing; he was as stable as the sea.

He sighed. "Why?" he asked. "Why did you do this? Did I not forbid you to go?" He sounded hurt, devastated by the fact that she had disobeyed him.

"I thought I would help you by doing this…" she said shakily.

"You have no idea what you have done! You would have been of more help if you'd just done what I asked you to do! I thought you were one of the few left who I could truly depend on, but it seems that I'm mistaken…" he said bitterly.

"Please, I…"

"I should teach you some respect for your lord! Respect and obedience!"

Beth was terrified by the person standing in front of her, while only a few months ago… they'd been best friends, if not more.

* * *

Flashback

_It was only a few days after my father had died… He came to me, carrying something in his hand. He sat right next to me and he hugged me._

"_It's going to be alright." he said, trying to comfort me. "I'm going to take care of you and your brother."_

_He opened his hand and showed me a beautiful headband. It was silver, embedded with blue and purple gems._

"_Take it." he said. "It's a gift. Something to remember your father by."_

_I slowly took it from his hands, he was smiling. He always smiled when he was around me._

"_Put it on, I would like to see you with it," he said with another dazzling smile._

_I hesitantly put the jewel on my head and looked him straight in the eye._

"_It looks great…" he said, "You always do."_

_That was when we kissed, that was when I knew I loved the most important person in the entire world I knew._

"_You're beautiful… Dithanei…"_

End Flashback

* * *

"Dithanei!" he shouted. "Are you even listening?" He was getting angrier each passing second.

She was getting so used to everyone calling her Beth that she'd forgotten her old name.

"Dithanei!" he said once more.

She nodded anxiously, still terrified. She tried to regain her posture, she slowly stood up and got to eye-level with him.

"I'm sorry," she said once more.

He tilted his head slightly, thoroughly scanning her.

"I'm sorry too," he suddenly said, "I shouldn't have yelled at you. I shouldn't have yelled at the person I love."

His face turned grim again. "Why do you… with that boy," he spat.

'He must mean Nicolas,' she thought, freaking out again. She forgot that her lover always knew what was happening. He could see and hear everything, but she knew he couldn't know anyone's thoughts.

"I thought that if I got close to someone, people might not suspect me as fast as they would if I were alone," she said slyly.

He narrowed his eyes, closing the gap between them. "I don't like sharing," he said.

She bit her lips, taking one step back.

"The children will expect repercussions," he then said.

She swallowed, knowing exactly what he meant. Runaways would be punished extensively and since she ran away and disobeyed orders, she would be in a lot of trouble.

He could see her fear and he set another step closer to her. His lips briefly brushed hers, as he turned away his head looking out of the window onto the streets.

"I'll see what I can do for you, my love," he said softly. "We will meet again soon, Dithanei. Be prepared!" he warned as he dissolved into thin air.

She sighed in relief, wondering why he had such an enchanting effect on her. Was it because of how he was, or how he used to be?

* * *

"What was wrong?" Téa asked as she saw the somewhat pale Beth coming up the stairs. "Where is your father?"

Beth smirked inwards as she heard Téa's last question. "He went home… He came to tell me that my sister was arrested for dealing drugs…" she lied.

"Oh, uh… sorry…" Téa said apologetically. "I shouldn't have asked."

"It's alright Téa, I'm quite used to my sister being an idiot." she stated casually.

Téa sighed, "We'd better get some sleep now."

"Yeah…" Beth said. The voices in her head were finally gone. She shook it all off and lay down on her airbed.

* * *

Deep under water in a dimly lit hall sat a boy with hands in his hair. He sighed, the last spell had tired him. He slowly stood up; he felt his hand bracelet slightly warming his skin.

"So that's how you intend to lead us, great leader!" a voice sounded from the back of the hall. A voice he knew all too well.

"Brutus, I'm not in the mood for your games right now," he said tiredly.

The man named Brutus tread into the light. With him was an entire group of men; none of them looked too cheerful.

'Oh great…' he thought, carefully watching the group of men.

"It seems," the young man named Brutus said, "that our leader wishes to make us great by favoring certain people over others," The group around him frowned and got a little angry by the words Brutus spoke.

"How fitting," the teen spoke mockingly, "that the person named Brutus betrays his lord," he scoffed, turning his back on the group.

"We doubt that you're the right person to lead us!" a person yelled and the group responded in a loud exultancy.

"Is that so…"

"Yes!" Brutus said drawing a curved sword, "And I challenge you to resolve this matter face to face."

"How dare you defile this sanctuary with your unholy weaponry!" the teen said furiously. "If we will fight we will do it according to the ways of old!"

"Fine with me," Brutus laughed, "you would have defeated me with swords anyway."

"We will duel…" the boy said, ignoring the laughter of the group behind him. He walked towards his desk and reached for a silver duel disk; he put it on and turned around.

Brutus was standing in the partially flooded part of the hall, waiting for his 'lord' to walk down the stairs from his dry spot and face him. He smirked; this was perfect. His opponent was exhausted and they were fighting for leadership over the tribe. He might have inherited the title of tribe leader, but the title actually belonged to him. He was the stronger person, the boy over there was just a pious weakling. The current leader never showed himself to the people who lived on the surface. The only thing he did was sit around in his 'sanctuary' watching a waterfall.

The teenage boy slowly walked down the steps of the small stair, his duel disk flipping outwards. His disk looked like the wings of a phoenix, but silver-colored, with edges of turquoise and marine blue and here and there some traces of gold.

"I warn you Brutus," he said, "you are not the first one to tread this path. Lucius tried before you and you know what happened to Lucius."

"Of course I do, how can we forget. You eliminated him."

"I warned him, Brutus, just like I'm warning you right now. Don't go through with this."

"Are you trying to scare me, 'my lord'? Are you trying to talk me out of this because you know you will lose?" Brutus said disdainfully.

"I don't wish to hurt your sister, Brutus, because either way this duel will go… she will be hurt."

"Oh, I don't think so. I think she has found another person to love. She wouldn't have to worry anymore about you getting angry at 'her' Nicolas."

The boys became angrier upon hearing what Brutus said.

"Oh I know what you're thinking. Yes, I've been spying on you for a long time and when you sent Marcus away and left yourself so vulnerable… I couldn't resist anymore."

"I was not talking about her being sad of losing me, Brutus," he said, surprising Brutus. "I was talking about the five ways this duel could end. All of them with me winning. There are three ways this duel could end with you getting banished, something which will hurt Dithanei… and two ways which will cost you more dearly, Brutus."

"Stop bluffing, you fool!" Brutus said angrily, "Let's duel already!"

"Fine!"

"Duel!" they shouted in unison.

"You can start, Brutus."

"I will!" he said venomously, "And I will start by playing the card I just drew, face down. Then I'll summon the Familiar Knight (1200/1400) in attack mode!"

"Interesting… I'll draw." the teen said and with a gracious move, he drew one card from his deck. He smirked and said, "I'll play two cards face down and end my turn."

"Do you think I'm that foolish?" Brutus asked while laughing at his 'lord's' move.

"Do you really want me to answer that?" he retorted.

"Pfft, brat." Brutus said. This angered his master to the very core of his being.

"It's still Lord Merus to you, fool!"

"The name Merus means nothing to me, soon the name of my father will mark this tribe's leadership," Brutus said while drawing another card. "I'll summon Science Soldier (800/800) in attack mode!"

Lord Merus, as the teen called himself, narrowed his eyes and thought. 'Next you will sacrifice those two monsters to summon the Priest of the Stone.'

"Then I will sacrifice my two monster to summon the Priest of the Stone! (4100/2200)" Brutus shouted triumphantly as the group supporting him cheered him on. "This high level monster can only be summoned by sacrificing two monsters with the DARK attribute. Since my two monsters were both…"

"Yeah, yeah I get it, but the Priest can't attack the same turn he is summoned."

"That's true 'my lord', so I will end my turn now." Brutus said.

"Very well," Lord Merus said while drawing another card. "I summon… The Sacred Ancient Guardian(0/0) in attack mode!"

Brutus blinked a few times before bursting out in heavy laughter. "You can't be serious! You will get wiped out in one blow by playing that monster! It's totally useless."

"Your disrespect for the old ways will be your undoing, Brutus," Merus said, ending his turn.

"Prepare to lose!" Brutus yelled, "Priest of the Stone, attack his Sacred Ancient Guardian!" He sniggered. "Because your Sacred Ancient Guardian has zero attack points, my Priest's attack points will be dealt as damage to your life points. Goodbye my lord."

* * *

Ishizu couldn't sleep that night. Her first day at Kaiba Corp. was overwhelming to say the least. Phone calls from people around the world, watching the stock market the entire day. Kaiba barking orders around…

She looked at her nightstand; the Millennium Necklace laid on top of it. It had been some time since she'd seen it so close. She remembered the conversation she had with Odion and Marik. It was strange to say the least. The items seemed to have appeared to every of their former owners, although she wasn't quite sure about the Millennium Key and Scales.

She had tried to read the future with her Necklace, but some strange form of magic was blocking every vision concerning the Items or Yugi. She tested the Necklace by using it for her work and until now it didn't seem to malfunction.

She shook the thoughts off. She had to go to sleep. Tomorrow would be an important day; one of Kaiba's business partners would be coming to visit him. Kaiba wanted her to attend the meeting with him. She tried to remember the man's name. It was something like a university… Stanford if she was right. Kaiba said the man was a bit eccentric and that she had to look her best to impress the man. He said that Mr. Stanford appreciated well groomed employees. He sounded a lot like Pegasus, only a bit more radical. Finally after a few minutes she fell asleep, waiting for what the next day would bring.

* * *

Domino City slept, but deep under the ocean people were all but sleeping. They were watching a standoff between their current leader and his opponent, Brutus against Lord Merus. Both strong men, but one of them utterly exhausted by his actions of the past nights. The first night he confronted the mighty Zorc, the second night he had a violent discussion with the spirit of the Millennium Ring, and this night he had tested the extent of his shade-conjuring powers. He was barely standing on his feet, something which made his opponent smile.

'It won't be long now…'

* * *

**Cliffhanger! Huehuehuehuehuehuehue...**

**Marcus: Oh my, he will keep laughing like this for hours now...  
Brutus: While he should really work on the next chapter...  
Marcus: Yes, but people should review this chapter, shouldn't they?  
Brutus: Indeed, so review and tell us what you thought of this chapter!**


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter nine... almost at chapter 10 people!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, I only own my OC's, the Priest of the Stone card, the Sacred Ancient Cards and a card that will be introduced this chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 9:

* * *

'Ryou…'

Bakura turned over in his bed.

'Little Ryou…'

He bolted up, searching around the room, trying to find out where the sounds came from.

'Don't be so naïve, Ryou… You know it's me,' the spirit laughed.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?"

'Because, little Ryou, my master is losing control over me.'

Bakura gulped, knowing that his yami's master was the only one keeping his yami from hurting him and his friends.

'Oh, I know what you're thinking, little Ryou… You're afraid I will hurt you… I will… in due time.'

Bakura stepped out of bed and switched the lights on. There he was, in his pajamas, completely alone at home.

'Once my master loses the duel he is in… I will be free! I will finally be able to do what I wanted to do when I was released from my prison!' He sniggered, enjoying the thoughts of what he could do.

'Soon… so very soon…'

* * *

"Goodbye my lord!" Brutus laughed as his Priest of the Stone raised his staff and struck at Merus' Sacred Ancient Guardian.

"Did you really think you would win this easily?" Merus asked with a grin. "If so, than you really are as stupid as I thought you would be," he scoffed.

"What do you mean…?" Brutus asked bewildered.

"Observe! I reveal my two face down cards: Mind of the Ancient Innovators and Heart of Sacred Generosity!"

"What? What do they do?" Brutus asked, aghast.

"Mind of the Ancient Innovators will copy your monster's attack points once you attack a Sacred Ancient Guardian. Since you just did, my Sacred Ancient Guardian will receive 4100 attack points, but that's not all," Merus said. "My Heart of Sacred Generosity will double the amount of attack points, so my Sacred Ancient Guardian now has 8200 attack points."

"That's insane!" Brutus cried.

"But since you attacked my monster when it had zero attack points, it would mean that I lose this duel… but by sacrificing 500 of my Sacred Ancient Guardian's attack points, my life points will be safe."

Merus' Sacred Ancient Guardian now had 7700 attack points, while Brutus' Priest of the Stone only had 4100.

"This is only a small setback…" Brutus said, "I will have 500 life points left when you attack… and I have a face down card myself!"

"Of course you do. Now I'm wondering which card it is," Merus said anxiously.

"It is…" Brutus said, enjoying seeing his master nervous, "Final Assault!"

"I see, each monster will be destroyed after attacking once…" Merus said.

"Indeed," Brutus said with a crooked grin. 'If he only knew what I was planning for him…'

"I will place one card face down and that will end my turn," Brutus said, now completely sure of his victory.

"Fine then…" Merus said. With another gracious move, he drew another card. Once he looked at the card, his face saddened. "I'll give you one last chance, Brutus. Reject now and you will perish."

"You're bluffing; your face is telling me enough! Besides, I would be foolish to give up. You would put me down within a week, like you did with Lucius… and my father," Brutus said bitterly.

"Diocles' death was not of my doing!" Merus yelled, genuinely taken aback by Brutus' words.

"At first, I believed you… but then… since the incident with Lucius… It was you all along!"

"Please Brutus, listen to me! Dithanei shouldn't have to lose a family member again. Think about her for a minute!" Merus pleaded exhaustedly.

"Like you thought about her when you killed my father?"

"I… I didn't kill your father…" Merus said tiredly. "Walk away now, Brutus… and I will forgive you. Don't go through with this."

"My lord!" a familiar person yelled. It was Marcus, who was absolutely shocked by the fact he saw his exhausted master in a duel with Brutus. Brutus, the eldest child of Diocles, the most revered man of the tribe… the man who died not so long ago.

"Face it, Lord Merus… You're just a weakling; you want to spare everyone you can. You won't get anywhere without making sacrifices. You won't get anywhere by sitting in front of a waterfall, collecting trinkets from across the world."

"You are wrong, Brutus. Tell me… what will you do when you defeat me? What will you do with the tribe?"

"I…" Brutus didn't know what to say; he hadn't thought about it. He only thought about defeating Merus.

"I thought so; you have no vision. I might have a weird vision, and thus you may call me crazy, but I have a vision nonetheless. I have ambition, something I want to achieve. You only have a grudge against me, while I don't even deserve it. Please, Brutus, stop now!"

"Never!" Brutus said, breaking eye contact.

"Very well; then this card will now seal your fate!" he said, holding up the card he drew. "I play… the Mark of Idonia!"

Brutus frowned, "And what might that be?"

"This is what it means to lead the tribe, Brutus. This card can only be played by those with pure blood."

"So? You and I both have pure blood; we are two of the last four," Brutus said.

"Indeed, Brutus, but you aren't worthy of holding this card, let alone playing it," Merus said. "There is only one card with this power and I have it here in my hand. There are no copies."

"Just play it already," Brutus said impatiently.

Merus shook his head and slowly placed the card in the slot on the front end of his duel disk, since the Mark of Idonia was a Field Spell Card.

A magical circle appeared on the ground. It had nine pointed star in it, and when Merus looked up he could see the shape of a bird. The circle, the star and the bird, which seemed to be a phoenix, glowed marine blue.

"It's like the circle on the ground…" Marcus muttered. He saw Merus' hand bracelet glowing blue.

"Only with this hand bracelet can you activate the Mark," Merus said. "That is why only the leaders of this tribe have the card and this hand bracelet."

"So what does this card do?"

"It is simple: you lose, you pay with your life," Merus said.

"What good will it be to you?" Brutus asked, confused.

"By paying an amount of my life points I can decrease your monster's attack points, not only this one, but all of your monsters'." Merus said sadly. "I think 500 points will just do…"

"But that means…"

"You lost the duel. Sacred Ancient Guardian, attack his Priest of the Stone with Spear of Sanctity!" Merus said and the Guardian struck the Priest with his spear.

The Priest shattered into pieces and Brutus' life points dropped to zero in one go.

"I only needed… one more turn…" he muttered. "Wait! What is happening!" he yelled as the circle closed him in and the phoenix started to dive at him.

"I warned you, Brutus…" Lord Merus said, turning his back to the terrified Brutus.

The phoenix came closer, launching itself for its prey.

"Ashes to ashes…" Merus mumbled, walking away from the scene.

The phoenix dove onto Brutus, who screamed as loud as he could. Within a few moments of agony, Brutus died. His body was reduced to a smoking pile of ashes, and the circle disappeared, as did the blue phoenix.

Marcus bowed his head to his master, his lord. He caught the exhausted boy as he nearly collapsed on the floor out of exhaustion. The group of men who had supported Brutus, who had cheered for him, were silent as the grave. One by one they bowed in front of Merus, who still was the lord of their tribe.

* * *

"Wake up, sleepy head!" Miho said, poking Téa in her side. "It's time to go shopping."

"Oh, right…" Téa said drowsily. She slowly sat up and shook her head a little. Serenity and Beth were already awake, she noted. She and Miho were the only ones left in the room.

"Maybe if we are at the mall, Miho will see Tristan!" Miho said enthusiastically. "Maybe Tristan will buy Miho something nice!"

"Yeah…" Téa said, stretching her arms and yawning.

Miho raced downstairs to meet up with the other girls, while Téa slowly got out of bed.

"Hi, Beth. Hi, Serenity." Téa said as she finally came down the stairs. The girls were eating their breakfast at the dining table. Miho was preparing breakfast for herself and Téa.

"I'm sorry we didn't make you two breakfast, but you were still asleep when we woke up," Serenity said.

"No problem," Téa said. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, but I woke up very early. When I tried to sneak out, Beth woke up. We went down and made some breakfast, and then you two came down," Serenity said.

"You fell over me…" Beth noted dryly.

"Yeah… sorry about that," she said apologetically.

"The pancakes make up for it," Beth said, smiling. She had slept well last night, despite what had happened. She wondered why he came to visit her in person. 'Why didn't he just send one of his shades… or did he send a shade… It would explain the shape shifting,' she thought, taking another bite of her pancake.

"Where will we be going first today?" Serenity asked. "Will we go shopping first or will we…"

"Shopping!" Miho exclaimed.

"I guess you have your answer," Téa said with a smile.

* * *

"Good morning, Kaiba," Ishizu said when she walked through the doors of Seto Kaiba's office.

The CEO was typing intensely on his laptop and only muttered a goodbye.

"You were expecting to see me, _again,_" she added the last part in her head.

"Yes," Kaiba said curtly, continuing to type on his laptop like his life depended on it.

Ishizu waited patiently, but Kaiba seemed to have forgotten that she was waiting for him to say why she was called here.

"So…?"

"The meeting with Mr. Stanford will take place this evening. He is having some trouble with his flight here, but he will make it in time. I want you to be dressed at your very best."

"You've said this to me before…" Ishizu said dryly.

"No I haven't…"

'Oops, Millennium Necklace…' Ishizu thought. 'How could I forget?'

"I would like to go home earlier to change," Ishizu said.

"Fine," Kaiba said, briefly looking up before continuing working on his laptop.

"You will be the only other person with me at this meeting. You'd better not screw up," Kaiba said when Ishizu walked towards the door.

* * *

"Sir, I'm happy to inform you that we're nearing Japan," Strickland said to his boss.

"Oh, Strickland, please come sit next to me. We have some important things to discuss," Stanford said.

'Why me? What have I done wrong to deserve this?' he cried inwardly. He sat down next to his employer.

"Now, Strickland, my son is having some trouble listening lately ,and I don't want him to become like his brothers…" he said worriedly. "Do you have any advice?"

"You're asking me for advice?" Strickland said astonished by his employer's request.

The man looked him straight in the eyes and started to smile. The smile turned into a broad grin, and then Mr. Stanford started to laugh. He laughed so hard that tears were coming out of his eyes.

Strickland was mentally bashing his head into a wall. He should've expected this: his boss would never ask him for advice. Now the man was laughing at him.

"You should've seen your face! It was priceless!"

'Why me?'

* * *

"Oooh! Look at that dress!" Miho said cheerfully. "Miho likes it very much!" She pointed to a long dress; it was composed of different shades of blue with a white hem.

"Wow, that's expensive…" Beth said.

"You think that's expensive?"

"Yeah…?" she said uncertain if the dress really was expensive.

"It is. I'm just messing with you," Nicolas said chuckling.

"Not funny!" she said, slapping him on the shoulder. She looked into his eyes, almost drowning within them.

'Wait, what am I thinking? Not good! Think about what would happen if _he_ found out!'

"Oh, hey, Nicolas," Téa said. "What are you doing here?"

"Just sauntering through the mall. And you're here to shop, I take it?"

"Yes!" Miho yelled a few display windows further.

"You must be Joey's sister."

"Yes, I am Serenity," she said, shaking Nicolas' hand.

"I'm Nicolas, great to meet you."

"Are you and Beth… a couple?" Serenity asked bluntly.

Beth reddened hearing this and was about to tell Serenity that they weren't a couple, but Nicolas beat her to it.

"No, we aren't. Not yet, at least," he said, winking at Beth.

She blushed even more now. 'Got to stop this…'

"Stop teasing Beth," Téa scolded. "You're embarrassing her."

"Okay, okay, I'll stop," he said, chuckling. He was only expressing his feelings. At least he wasn't afraid to do so.

* * *

"Roland!"

"Yes, Mr. Kaiba?"

"Is everything ready for our guest?"

"I think everything is, Mr. Kaiba."

"Perfect, how about Ms. Ishtar?"

"She went home a few minutes ago, sir."

"Oh, yes, I allowed her to go home… I forgot. Thank you Roland, you can go."

Kaiba stood up from his chair and picked up the phone. He dialed his home number and patiently waited for his brother to pick up the phone.

"Mokuba."

"Big brother!" Mokuba sounded excited about something, but to be honest… he didn't care right now. He was focusing on his meeting this evening.

"Mokuba, listen. I will be home late tonight. I have an important meeting."

"Oh…" Mokuba sounded disappointed. "Can I ask someone over here?"

"Sure, as long as that someone isn't Yugi or any of his geek squad."

"Okay, Seto, thanks!"

"I will see you tonight, Mokuba," Kaiba said.

* * *

"Tristan!" Miho chirped happily, racing towards her boyfriend. It was official now, they were a couple. Not that it had surprised anyone, anyone but Joey of course, but Joey is just… Joey.

Yugi, Joey, and Tristan were walking down the road when Téa, Serenity, Miho, Beth, and Nicolas came out of the mall.

"Big brother!" Serenity yelled in glee as she ran towards Joey. She knew about Miho and Tristan because they had talked about it last night. She wasn't jealous or anything. She was okay with it.

"Hi, guys," Yugi said, "Have you been shopping with the girls, Nicolas?"

"No, they never invited me… I had to find out the hard way," he said, pulling a sad face.

"Where were you guys going?" Téa asked.

"Well, we've been to the Duel Arena, but since it's almost time for dinner…" Tristan said.

"Is it that late already?" Téa asked. "Have we spent the entire day at the mall?"

"Yes, and Miho thought it was fun!" Miho said cheerfully as always.

"I wonder how Bakura is doing…" Yugi said suddenly. "First he is really depressed and all, but suddenly he cheers up… we haven't seen him since."

"So? We never see him that much," Tristan said.

"He started to hang out with us when he lost the Millennium Ring, but now it's back…"

"I know what you mean, Yugi, but I'm sure Bakura is fine. I think he needs some time for himself. Some time to think."

* * *

'Ryou…'

He heard his yami again while eating breakfast. Couldn't he just take a break?

'You are lucky, little Ryou… my master won, and he is regaining control… but don't worry, little Ryou. I'll fight myself free…'

"Why can't you just shut the bloody hell up!"

'Such foul words for such a young person… you're starting to sound like me, little Ryou.'

'Enough, spirit!'

He growled again but went silent afterwards.

'Sleep, Ryou Bakura…' he heard the strange voice in his head say. 'Sleep. I know you're tired. I have some use for you, but you need to be well rested…'

Bakura trudged upstairs and walked into his bedroom. He pulled of his shirt and threw it over the Millennium Ring, which was laying at his nightstand. He dropped himself on his bed and within a few seconds he was asleep; nothing bothered him now.

* * *

"We are here, sir…"

"I can see that, Strickland. I'm not visually impaired," Stanford said, once again annoyed by his employee.

"…"

"I thought so, Strickland, now apologize."

"My apologies, sir…"

"Very well, now you stay here in the car. I will take young Bryce to accompany me, if you don't mind."

"No, sir, of course, sir."

"Good boy!" Stanford said cheerfully. He stepped out of the limo, his white boots clacking on the pavement; he stood in front of the enormous building home to Kaiba Corp. "Bryce, my boy! You're accompanying me to this meeting."

One of the front doors opened, and the young Bryce Nathanson stepped out in his newly acquired suit.

"Ah, I see you're properly dressed. Good, I'd hate to show up to a meeting with my employees wearing indecent clothing."

Bryce rolled his eyes, thinking about how lucky Strickland was for not having to accompany this madman to a boring meeting. Who knew what kind of things Mr. Stanford would do when this deal went wrong. He might put him on the electrical chair and torture him to death like he did to that little boy. His stomach twisted upside down again; thinking about the boy's begging eyes made him feel sick. He felt so helpless up there. He was watching a boy slowly being killed by a monster. He had a chance to stop it, but he felt like he couldn't move. The boy's face still haunted him in his sleep. He would keep asking him why he didn't help. Why he didn't stop the evil Mr. Stanford.

"What will you do when this business deal goes wrong, sir?" Bryce asked carefully.

"It won't go wrong, Bryce, I assure you. Seto Kaiba's ego is far too big to refuse this."

'What is he up to? What is this business deal he wants to make? Why is this guy so creepy…?' he thought as he and Mr. Stanford entered the Kaiba Corp. building. 'Oh well, I'll find out soon, but I don't know if I should be to happy about that…'

* * *

**That was chapter nine, did you like it? Please let me know by reviewing. For the people wondering what the Mark of Idonia card looks like... check the story's picture. For those thinking 'wow this one looks a lot like the Orichalcos', yes it does only this one is a bit more... unforgiving and powerfuller and... I will use it on those who won't review MUAHAHAHAHA!**

**Next chapter will feature... no wait, that's for you to guess. The winner gets... something.**

**For those people wondering what a hand bracelet is... It's a bracelet... but instead of wearing it around your wrist you wear it around your handpalm... Google it and be enlightened. There are some hand bracelets that you can wear around the wrist and it extends to your fingers, but I mean the one that you can only wear around you hand.**


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10, read, enjoy and review when you're done. I will say it again, ask me questions if you want to know something**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh**

* * *

Chapter 10:

* * *

Domino City 21:00  
Kaiba Corp.

The night had placed its dark sheet over Domino City. Stars twinkled brightly in the darkness, like little diamonds reflecting sunlight. Ishizu looked out of the gigantic glass windows at the back of Kaiba's office. For some reason, all multibillionaires had these windows at their office. Kaiba was impatiently tapping his fingers on his desk, waiting for his business associate to arrive.

A few seconds before the clock would hit one past nine, the doors opened and Mr. Stanford walked in with a much younger man. The younger man was nicely dressed in a black suit.

Mr. Stanford, however, was more noticeably clothed: White boots, long black trousers, a white shirt with a grey tie, and a black jacket. Those white boots were really outstanding.

Seto Kaiba himself was dressed in his white suit, the suit he occasionally used at business meetings.

Ishizu was dressed in a gold cream cowl gown, a dress she once bought but had never used. She did consider it the most beautiful of her dresses, but Marik and Odion always told her not to wear it to official occasions; they said it was too revealing. It wasn't that bad… only her back and her arms showed. Her collarbone was covered for the most part, and only the tip of her sternum was visible.

'Decent, but playful.' Ishizu thought when she first put it on. Her thoughts were confirmed when she walked into the office of her employer, who seemed to have changed his clothes at work. He was usually stone faced, but when she came through the door in her dress, his mouth almost dropped on his desk.

'It was only for a few seconds, but I have to admit. It was fun to see Kaiba like that.'

Kaiba stood up from his chair and made a tiny bow; then he gestured his guest to follow him to another room. The room he led them too was the conference room with a long table and a lot of black comfy-looking chairs.

"Please sit down," Kaiba said as he walked over to the head of the table and sat. Stanford sat close to him and Bryce stood behind Mr. Stanford. As agreed, Ishizu stood behind Kaiba.

"It's good to see you've remembered how to show up, Stanford," Kaiba said. "I was almost starting to think you wouldn't."

"I did not come here to discuss my tardiness, Kaiba; I came to discuss more important things. I must say though that your hospitality has improved since my last visit…" Stanford said. "You now have decently clothed employees, although you I wonder why you picked a girl to stand by your side. I hope you didn't order her to seduce me, since that would backfire… I'm already married you see."

Ishizu quirked an eyebrow at Kaiba, who didn't move a muscle.

"Mr. Stanford, I'd really like…"

"Or is it for your own amusement? Are your hormones finally catching up with you?"

Kaiba only blinked once before interrupting Stanford again. "I just want to…" It was useless: Stanford kept talking.

"I'm so happy for you, Seto… I was starting to get anxious. I couldn't bear it to see you become like my Julian…" he sighed after mentioning his youngest son. "Well, better late than never shall we say?" he laughed.

"Could we please…"

"What is the lucky girl's name?" he interrupted again.

Kaiba was growing annoyed by his business associate. He had known Mr. Stanford since he was adopted by Gozaburo. He and Stanford were friends since… a long time. Kaiba nodded at Ishizu, who was giving him some questioning looks, gesturing her to answer Mr. Stanford's question.

"My name is Ishizu Ishtar, sir," Ishizu said. She looked at Mr. Stanford and saw him staring at her neck.

"That necklace…" he said. Ishizu was expecting him to jump at her; at least his eyes looked like he was about to do that. For some reason, Mr. Stanford was afraid of her Item, it seemed. "Mr. Kaiba, please have your sidekick take off her necklace, I don't really like the look of it."

Kaiba raised his eyebrow, he could have expected these kinds of requests from Stanford, but he didn't think he would make a fuss about a necklace.

"Very well…" Kaiba said and Ishizu took off her Millennium Necklace, wondering even more why Stanford didn't like it. She lay it down on a sideboard near the door.

"Ah, good, now I must say you have a very pretty girlfriend, Kaiba. It's too bad I'm already married and old…" he stroked his graying goatee. "But now on to business, I have something really important to tell you."

"Yes, you said it was about this new way of transporting files over…"

"Oh, no! No! That's old news; I have something far better," Mr. Stanford said as Bryce placed a black suitcase on the table. He opened it and took out a small wooden box.

"Open it," he said with a proud smile.

Kaiba slowly opened the wooden box only to stare at a Kuriboh card. He frowned and said, "You want me to pay you money for this useless Duel Monsters card?"

Mr. Stanford chuckled, "No joking, Kaiba. This is a serious meeting. I'm hosting a small private tournament in my home city of New York, but since I'm not very influential towards Duel Monsters public I thought you'd better announce it. Mr. Pegasus, your business associate, has already agreed on spreading the word. If both companies responsible for Duel Monsters' success would recommend this tournament…"

"What will I gain?" Kaiba asked stone faced. The word tournament had piqued his interest.

"The winner will receive something unimaginable, but that's all I can say for now."

"I didn't ask what the winner would gain… I asked what I would gain."

"Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Kaiba; I thought winner equaled your name…" Mr. Stanford said slyly, "but if you disagree…"

'That snake…' Kaiba thought, 'saying no would make me look like a fool in front of the world, because if I know Stanford well enough, he will take this to the media.'

"Fine…" Kaiba said irritated by his own stupidity.

"Marvelous, that was all I wanted to talk about," Mr. Stanford said.

"You could've asked me this over the phone, Stanford…"

"Yes, but now there are two witnesses to make sure you keep your word; besides, I like to have eye contact with people I'm doing business with."

'You just want to see people get annoyed at you…'

Mr. Stanford stood up and signaled Bryce to leave. "We can find our way out Mr. Kaiba; you can stay right here to… recover from this shocking plan of mine…"

Kaiba knew exactly what Stanford meant; he actually said something like 'to recover from the fact that I beat you in a mind game.' He sat still for at least five minutes, feeling Ishizu's worried gaze on him.

"I hate that man…" Kaiba eventually said. "That manipulating jerk!" He smashed his fist on the table. "He will pay for messing with me…"

Ishizu walked over to the sideboard where she'd left her Millennium Necklace. She reached for it, but it was gone.

"My Necklace! It's gone!" she yelled.

"What a surprise…" Kaiba mumbled, "I never thought Stanford would sink that low." He stood up and walked over to where Ishizu was standing.

Ishizu was in shock: she had failed to protect a powerful magical item.

'Great… this just had to happen to me…' Kaiba thought. 'Now I probably have to comfort someone… Just great…'

"It's just a necklace Ishizu, you can buy a new one in the morning."

"Don't you have any idea what power that Necklace possesses, Kaiba?" Ishizu said angrily.

"He does not, but I do, Ishizu Ishtar."

"Who is there?" Kaiba asked, startled by the sudden voice of a stranger, but still as stone faced as ever.

"I'm the one who sees everything, Seto Kaiba, the one who hears everything."

"Show yourself!" Ishizu heard Kaiba yell as he took a step in front of her. 'I never knew Kaiba would be so protective of people other than his brother,' Ishizu thought.

"What is wrong, Kaiba, are you afraid?"

"I'm not afraid of anything!" Kaiba yelled. "Now show yourself!"

A boy walked out of the shadows. Ishizu saw he was holding the Millennium Necklace in his left hand. She saw his grayish blue boots slowly coming into the light. She saw a lot of robes colored white, gray, marine blue, and turquoise. His long turquoise cloak graciously flowed over the carpet on the floor. He was pale. He had blue eyes and, most notably, turquoise hair. He had an intimidating air about him.

"Who are you?" Kaiba asked confused.

"I'm Antístoicho, and we need to talk, Kaiba."

* * *

"We're at your hotel, Mr. Stanford," Strickland said, notifying his boss.

"Good, I'm quite tired. Messing with Kaiba tends to be quite exhausting after a long flight from New York to Domino," Stanford said, suppressing a yawn. He would never yawn in front of his employees; that would be very indecent for his standards. He stepped out of the car, followed by Strickland and Bryce Nathanson; together they walked towards the entrance of the fancy looking hotel.

"What can I do for you, sir?" a young lady asked from behind a desk at the entrance hall.

The hall was very nice looking: marble tiles, marble walls, a few large chandeliers, and a lot of decorative woodwork, most of it plated gold. 'Or is it solid gold?' Bryce wondered.

"I reserved two rooms," Stanford said. "One business suite and one two-person common suite."

'Figures…' Strickland thought. 'His majesty bathes in luxury and I get stuck with Nathanson in a common suite…'

"Then you must be Mr. Stanford?" the young lady asked.

"Indeed, I am T. D. H. Stanford," he slowly said.

"The common suite is at floor 3, number 359; the business suite is at the top floor, number… B3."

"Thank you, darling," Mr. Stanford said with a smile.

"Strickland, you can bring me my luggage. I'm at room B3 at the top floor; your room is at the third floor, number 359," Stanford said while stepping into the elevator, leaving a groaning Strickland and a silent Bryce Nathanson behind.

'I have the key to room 359, so they will have to bring me my luggage. Herbert, you are a genius.'

He stepped out of the elevator and walked over to room B3. He opened the door with his key and flipped the lights on, his back facing his room since he was closing the door. He turned around to see someone sitting in a chair.

"You!"

* * *

The soft and steady breathing of Bakura sounded through his room. He was vaster asleep than he would ever be asleep.

"Bakura," someone whispered slowly. "Bakura…"

Bakura turned around in his bed, his bare back facing the person trying to wake him.

"Bakura…"

Bakura now turned back, his eyes open a little.

"Bakura…" it now sounded a little harder.

His eyes shot open in fear. He looked straight into pale blue eyes.

"Did you sleep well, Bakura?"

Bakura noted that it was the same voice that scolded his yami not so long ago.

"Yes…" Bakura said anxiously. He was a little hoarse from waking up.

"Very good, Bakura… may I call you Ryou?" the stranger asked.

"Only if you tell me your name," Bakura answered.

"You may call me Guardian, Ryou. My real name is a bit hard to say."

"What is your real name?" Bakura asked.

"My name is Antístoicho, but as I said, Ryou, Guardian is far easier to say."

"What are you doing here in the middle of the night, Guardian?"

"You don't seem to be surprised by people waking you up in the middle of the night in your own home…"

"I got used to weird things happening to me," Bakura said dryly. He observed Guardian; he was different in many aspects. Not only did he have turquoise colored hair, but he was dressed in a lot of robes. 'Must be warm…' Bakura thought.

"No, it's not that warm, Ryou, but I guess I'm quite used to it," Guardian suddenly said, as if he could read his mind. "I know what you think Ryou… I'm inside of your head, am I not? No you aren't going crazy, I have magic powers. No, I'm not going to explain anything about it."

"Wow, you really know what I think," Bakura said in awe of the person in front of him.

"Yes, Ryou, but I came here for a reason," Guardian said, suddenly turning serious. "I will need your help soon, Ryou. I need your help, but I also need your yami's help. You must work together with him in order to accomplish whatever I ask you to do."

"Wait, why would I do these things for you?" Bakura asked.

"It's simple Ryou. I'm the only one containing your yami. Once I release him, he will take control of you like he did before I came into the picture. I have the power to hold him back. I gave you control over him. I think you owe me, Ryou…" he said, disappearing in a small whirlwind.

'I have control over my yami…?' Bakura thought. He could hear his yami growl in disgust. 'This might not be so bad at all.'

* * *

"My lord?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you doing all this?"

"It is all part of the plan, Marcus."

"It doesn't make any sense, my lord."

"That might be so, Marcus, but in the end all this hard work will pay off. Now get out of here; I need to concentrate and I'm tired already."

"Yes, my lord."

Marcus left his master near the waterfall. Yesterday had been very tough for him. He had to notify the entire tribe of Brutus' death. Lord Merus wasn't able to do it himself: he had been resting the entire day; not that that was anything new. Lord Merus always slept during day and was active at night. Marcus wondered why, a few weeks ago, it had been the other way around.

He walked up a winding staircase. It was dark everywhere, except for a faint turquoise light coming from the hall he'd just left. After a few minutes of walking in the dark, he finally saw some light at the top of the stairway. The light was faint, since it came from the moon, not from the sun. Fresh air blew in his face as he walked out of a small ancient looking building at a small island. A land bridge led to a somewhat larger island. There resided the tribe, or rather what is left of their once great tribe.

'Only three people with pure blood are left. Lord Merus was right after all: the end is coming. I hope the people will see it now…' Marcus thought, 'but I don't understand why he talks to the Stone and why he calls us 'the Children'. I can't understand why he is going through so much trouble, just to retrieve his Ring. I know he hates his father's murderer, but why so much effort to bring him down? Not to mention the danger he has put himself in now he is trying to awaken the ancient powers…'

He reached the small settlement of his people, his master's 'Children'. A small, humble collection of small, wooden huts.

'Why do I doubt Lord Merus? I'm sure he knows what he is doing… I can't get that card out of my head, though… the Mark of Idonia… The circle with the star looked exactly like the one carved on the floor of Lord Merus' sanctuary. The same circle he used when enchanting the Millennium Puzzle and Ring, but then again… that Phoenix… That Phoenix looked like something I've seen before in the ancient scriptures. Maybe it's best to look those scriptures up again and study them. Not only for my sake, but also for Lord Merus'. I wonder if what happened to Brutus also happened to Lucius… Lucius did complain about Lord Merus' rule for a long time before suddenly going mad and dying in front of the tribe. That was the last time Lord Merus was on the surface…'

He went inside his hut and laid himself on his mattress. He forgot about his thoughts and fell asleep.

* * *

**Ok, that's it for now. Next chapter will be about... things. I hope you enjoyed reading.**

**Dont forget to review, I'd really like to see some new people reviewing my story. I know there are more than 9 people reading this story. :)**


	12. Chapter 11

***Lots of sighs* I really wish some more reviews...**

**Here's Chapter 11, tying some last ends up. It's almost time to start the adventure, so brace yourselves. It will all start in about two chapters.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.**

* * *

Chapter 11:

* * *

"Hello, Herby," the teen said from his luxurious chair.

"You have a lot of guts coming here on your own," Stanford growled.

"I'm not really here, Herby; I'm just a shade."

"How is that…?"

"You have something I want Herby, something you took from my father a long time ago. I want it back, Herby."

Herby scoffed, "You think I will give it to you because you know a magic trick?"

"No, you're not stupid, Herby. In fact, I think that you've already uncovered a part of the Ring's magic, no? I think you're preparing something big. That's why you met with Seto Kaiba."

"I hope you didn't tell him anything about my plan?" Stanford now said anxiously.

"No, on the contrary, I think your plan is quite amusing," the shade said. 'And by completing your plan, you will be playing into my hand, Herby,' he thought.

"Then what is the real reason for you to be here?" Stanford demanded to know.

"I want to duel you, Herby, isn't that obvious?"

"Duel me? Hah, you must be joking."

"No, I'm quite serious. We will duel soon, Herby. You will lose, and when you do, I will take back what is rightfully mine. The magic of that Ring belongs with me, Herby, not with an impure fool like yourself!"

"What rough words for such a young boy. Your father would be ashamed," Stanford said provocatively. He wanted to test the kid's temper, but he didn't catch the bait.

"I think I will visit your son… if you don't mind?" The shade saw Stanford's eye twitch. "So Julian is still your soft spot? Even after all his failures? How touching."

Someone knocked on the door. Stanford turned around to open the door. When he looked back, the shade was gone.

"Mr. Stanford, here is your luggage," Strickland said, carrying two large suitcases inside. He put them in the corner, made a small bow to Mr. Stanford, and left the room. Stanford sat down on his bed with his hands in his hair. He was thinking deeply.

'So he goes for the person I love most? I shall go for the person he loves most,' he thought with a crooked smile appearing on his face. 'I will hit three birds with one stone with my plan. I will put my two rivals out of business, I will crush my nemesis, and I will have a lot of fun doing this all.'

* * *

'Dithanei…'

Beth rubbed her eyes. It was still dark.

'Dithanei, come to the garden…'

She sat upright now and slowly watched her friends still sleeping in the room. The alarm clock showed her the time, four AM.

'This could've come at a better time…' she thought.

She tip-toed downstairs, through the living room, to the large glass sliding doors. She unlocked them and slowly slid one open. She saw her lover standing in the garden with his back to her, waiting for her to come. She hesitantly walked through the door, into the garden.

'Chilly,' she thought. 'I hope this won't take too long.'

He was looking into the sky, at the stars that twinkled brightly up there. It was a clear night, she noted. She slowly walked behind him and embraced him from behind. She felt him tense for a few seconds, but he relaxed soon after that.

"You're never off guard… Why were you this time?" she whispered in his ear.

"I was thinking…" he said distantly.

She saw his right hand. He wore his hand bracelet. This meant that this was the real him, not a shade. His shades never wore his hand bracelet.

'How did he get here so fast?' she wondered.

"Transportation spell," he said to take away her confusion.

"Oh…"

She felt the warmth of his breath on her arm; his breath was slow and steady. She felt the urge to kiss him, but she withheld. He might not approve her behavior, since what she had done was… disrespectful towards him.

"Something terrible happened last night, Dith…" he said sadly.

She felt her heartbeat rising; he never told her things like this unless they were truly gruesome.

"What is it?" she asked anxiously.

"After our little talk yesterday…" he said.

She shivered of remembering that awful night. He took it as a sign of her being cold. He took off his cloak and wrapped it around her, thus breaking free from her embrace.

"…someone stood up against my leadership with a large group of supporters."

She was shocked to hear this.

"They deposed you?" she asked, frightened by the news.

"Their leader challenged me, so we dueled… and I won," he said; his voice almost broke.

"What has that to do with me?" she asked, but it suddenly came to her and she felt like she was fainting. She felt being caught by her lover, the indisputable ruler of her people.

"What happened to my brother?" she asked with tears in her eyes.

He didn't answer, but he held her closer to his heart. She cried and he hated to see her cry.

"I'm sorry," he whispered hoarsely. "I asked him to forfeit before I played the card that…"

"…took his life?" she finished for him, crying even harder.

He could only nod.

"It's all my fault…" she said. "If I hadn't left, he would still be alive."

"Don't blame this on yourself, Dith; he would have challenged me anyway."

"I should have been there to stop him… but I wasn't. I've failed my father," she sobbed.

"Dithanei… there is more. I came here not only to tell you about your brother, but also to warn you."

She shot him a questioning look, her face covered with tears. He patted her face dry with his sleeve before continuing to speak.

"Beware for a man named Stanford, Dith. Don't underestimate him. Watch out for him…" he said while disappearing into the darkness.

"Wha…?" she stumbled. She stood up and went inside. She still felt tears prickling her eyes. Her brother was gone, dead by the hands of the one she loved. She knew it wasn't his fault, she just knew, but it didn't make things any easier.

* * *

"Good morning, Yugi. Did you sleep well?" Mr. Muto asked.

"Yes, Grandpa," Yugi said, racing out the door.

"Yugi! Wait, come back! You had another call from Pegasus!"

Yugi got back as fast as he left.

"Strange… what's wrong this time?"

"He said something about a small tournament in New York City, Yugi. You, as the King of Games, are invited."

"Another tournament? Awesome, but…" Yugi said, "I can't go, I have to go to school."

"Don't worry, Yugi. Pegasus said that everything would be taken care of."

"Okay, Grandpa. I'm going to Joey's now," Yugi said, running out the front door again.

* * *

"Croquet!" Pegasus called out for his right hand man.

"Yes, Mr. Pegasus."

"Please inform Theodore about Yugi being informed of his invitation," Pegasus said, enjoying a glass of wine and a comic book of Funny Bunny. Stanford had visited him yesterday, talking him into his tournament. He didn't exactly know why, but something felt wrong. He'd called Yugi, not only because Stanford asked him to do so, but also because he knew that if something went wrong, Yugi could fix it.

"By the way, Mr. Pegasus, your nephew has left you a message."

"Oh? What did it say?" Pegasus asked curiously.

"It only contains a photo sir." Croquet said, walking towards his boss to give him the card.

Pegasus looked at the photo; it was an old picture of him with Cecelia. He smiled and took another sip from his wineglass.

* * *

The day was a rather normal one. Nothing really happened. Yugi spent most of the day hanging out with Joey, Tristan, and Duke. At the end of the day, they met up with the girls; they were saying goodbye to Serenity, who was going back to her mother.

Beth left soon after, saying that she was going to visit her sister in jail. Beth knew that was a lie, but as long as they believed it… Tristan and Miho eventually split off, saying they were going on a date. Duke had to go to a meeting that night, so he wandered off, too. Joey ran off as well, leaving Téa and Yugi alone.

It was awkward. Yugi said nothing, and Téa didn't say anything either. When Yugi eventually got home and she walked over to hers, she felt like bashing her head against the door. She screwed up… again.

When Joey got home and checked the mailbox, he found a letter. A letter from Kaiba Corp.

'Oh great, what does rich boy want now…?' he thought and opened the letter.

"You are hereby invited to a tournament… blabla… in NEW YORK CITY!" he yelled. He quickly reached for his phone and dialed Yugi's number.

"Yug, you gotta listen! I'm invited for a tournament in New York!" he yelled through the phone.

"You, too, Joey? That's great! I was invited by Pegasus this morning."

"Why didn't you tell?" Joey asked.

"It slipped my mind, sorry," Yugi said apologetically.

"That's a'right, Yug, wait… did you say Pegasus?"

"Yeah…"

"But I was invited by Kaiba!"

"Strange…" Yugi said. "Maybe they're hosting a tournament together?"

"Yeah… maybe…"

"Got to go, Joey, my grandpa is calling me for dinner."

"A'right, bye, Yug."

"Bye, Joey."

'Why would Pegasus host a tournament with rich boy? That doesn't make any sense… Kaiba hates Pegasus… this is really strange…'

* * *

"Ryou…"

Bakura quickly turned around. He sighed in relief as he saw a familiar face in his room.

"Guardian, you startled me," he chuckled.

"I have an important message for you, Ryou," Guardian said seriously. "A man named Theodore Stanford is hosting a duel tournament in New York. You must get there in any way possible. You must compete in that tournament, Ryou, this is our first task."

"What about my schoolwork and all the…"

"Don't worry, Ryou; it will be alright. Just go to school tomorrow, and you will find out eventually."

"Will you be competing in the tournament?" Bakura asked curiously.

"Maybe, maybe not. I will see when the time is right, but Ryou… you must compete whatever the cost. But no worries for now. It's bedtime for you, don't you think?"

Bakura felt his legs get numb and he felt the urge to yawn. He hadn't noticed how tired he was. He guessed Guardian was right. It's better to go to sleep now.

"Good Ryou, sleep and don't worry about this all…"

* * *

"The pawns are in place, Marcus. I control the game."

"My lord, I still don't understand what you are trying to achieve, but you must know that I will support you."

"I know you will, Marcus. You might be naïve and a fool sometimes, but you are loyal."

"My lord said that the pawns were in place?"

"Yes, Marcus, everything is ready. Now it's time to wait again; I will lie low for the time being."

"Good, now you can resume training, my lord."

Merus glared at his servant, "I've trained…"

"That might be my lord, but at least now I can watch you. You will do your routines every afternoon and…"

"I will do the routines on one condition."

"And that is, my lord?"

"It will be at night, but to spare you sleepless nights I will do them around eleven PM. Is that fine with you, Marcus?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Fine now…"

"It is eleven PM, my lord."

Merus chuckled. He might be Marcus' superior, but Marcus was his mentor, and he had to respect his mentor. Marcus was his third mentor in five years. His first mentor was Diocles, Brutus' and Dithanei's father; Diocles was a good man. After Diocles had an accident and died, he named Lucius his successor. It was the only bad thing Diocles had ever done in his entire life. Lucius was incompetent, foolish, and stubborn. After a few weeks of mentoring, he'd challenged Merus to a duel. He lost and paid the highest price: his life. Merus didn't feel bad for taking the man's life; he would've gotten himself killed anyway. Then came Marcus…

"Show me what you can do, my lord," Marcus said sternly.

Merus unsheathed two short swords and held them tightly in his hands. He moved through the half flooded part of the hall graciously in circular motions. He was doing his routines, an ancient form of sword fighting; the art was even more ancient than the hall he was practicing in.

Marcus watched Merus' every move, nodding approvingly along the way.

"Very good, my lord," he said when Merus finished. "I thought your skill would've deteriorated after such a long time with no practice."

"Marcus… I'm ready to take this one step further."

Marcus gulped; he knew what his master meant. The art came with a more powerful variant, a variant only the wearers of the three jewels could practice. Merus had one of these jewels, namely the hand bracelet. Once the wearer activated the powers hidden inside his jewel and completed the ancient routine… he could summon a power almost equal to that of the Mark.

"I am ready Marcus…" Merus said, "…and you know it."

"It is dangerous, my lord,"

"I know it is dangerous, Marcus, but if I don't learn to control this power…!"

Marcus sighed deeper than he had ever done. "Alright, then, my lord."

Merus smirked; that always worked. He got into a stance, similar to that of a crane. He was concentrating, channeling the powers of his jewel. Suddenly Marcus felt like the hall was ablaze; he knew his young master had succeeded in channeling the ancient powers.

A red bird consisting of purple flames appeared behind the young Merus. The phoenix, because it was obviously a phoenix, copied every move Merus made. Merus controlled a portion of the eldest magic powers in the world now. This was a whole new level he had reached. Shades were part of harmless conjuring, but this creature was destructive. He controlled a phoenix.

As soon as Merus stopped, the phoenix vanished. Merus looked at his mentor's face.

"Come now, Marcus. That was only the weakest of them all. Only imagine the power I will have when I reawaken…"

* * *

**Good point to stop I think. So... the mysterious Lord Merus will be out of the picture for some time. This can only mean one things of course: more Yugi and the gang. Next chapter won't be about just another schoolday, but a very special schoolday. Soon, the crazy Mr. Stanford will throw his tournament, but is it really a tournament? Why did he talk Pegasus and Kaiba into his tournament and who is Pegasus nephew? What will happen between Téa and Yugi? Will we see more friends back in New York? So many questions... Oh my, it's starting to sound like a really cheap soap. **

**I hope you enjoyed, now please review. I really want some more reviews to give me extra reason to write more chapters. I'm not going to say I will stop if I don't get more reviews, because I simply can't stop.**

**R-E-V-I-E-W-P-L-E-A-S-E-!**


	13. Chapter 12

**This will be the last chapter that wraps everything up before the real adventure starts. Enjoy it and review please, because I would really like some NEW people to tell me what they think. (no offense to the people who always review me, you guys are awesome ;) )**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, but I do own my OC's**

* * *

Chapter 12:

* * *

"Good morning, class!" Mr. Tanaka said very loudly. He was very excited about something, thrilled was a better word to use.

"Good morning, class!" he said again, like he was waiting for an answer.

"…"

"Forget it, I'm not in the mood to get angry today," Mr. Tanaka said, waving his frustration away. "As you all know, the school board had a meeting this weekend about…"

"Excursion!" someone yelled, resulting into loud cheering from everyone in the class.

Mr. Tanaka took a seat, knowing that this was going to take some time. He didn't blame his students; he could understand their excitement. He was excited, too, from the moment he was at the meeting. South Korea would have been lots of fun, but the excursion they planned afterwards… was even better.

The class calmed down after a few minutes, and Mr. Tanaka resumed speaking. "We were discussing various places to go to. After some time we decided to go to… South Korea."

The class exploded into loud cheering again, but this time Mr. Tanaka intervened.

"Class, calm down! I'm not done talking yet…"

The class went silent again and listened to what their homeroom teacher had to say.

"We were wrapping up some last loose ends when we suddenly received a call. It was from a very generous businessman who told us he had heard about our excursion. He said that he knew a few students and he wished to give them an excursion they will always remember…"

The class had never been as silent as it was now, no coughs, no sniffing. He could hear people breathing at the back row.

"He sponsored our excursion on one condition… That was… the place we were going to had to be…"

Mr. Tanaka stalled as long as he could, smirking as he saw the glares of his students.

"New York City!"

The class was silent for a few seconds after Mr. Tanaka had yelled it out loud. Their reaction was unimaginably loud, Mr. Tanaka was almost blown out of his chair by their reaction.

Yugi exchanged looks with Joey. 'That must be what Pegasus meant…' Yugi thought.

Bakura thought a similar thing, but he thought Guardian was behind it all. He slowly raised his finger to ask a question.

"Yes, Ryou?" Mr. Tanaka said. The teachers were some of the few to call him by his first name. Not even Yugi and his friends called him by his first name.

"May I ask who sponsored our excursion?"

"Of course you can."

"…"

"Ask away," Mr. Tanaka chuckled.

Bakura made a mental facepalm, why did he have to ask it that way… ? "Who is sponsoring our excursion?"

"A very generous man named…" Mr. Tanaka searched for a small piece of paper. "Theodore Dedrick Herbert Stanford."

The class blinked after hearing this long name. Beth felt her stomach turning upside down.

"_Beware for a man named Stanford, Dith. Don't underestimate him. Watch out for him…"_

'I don't like the idea of that man sponsoring our excursion…' Beth thought.

"I know what you are thinking, students; that man has a very long name. What can I say, he is an American…" Mr. Tanaka said. "No offense Beth, Nicolas," he quickly added, realizing he had two American students.

"None taken," Nicolas mumbled.

"Oh, my bad." Mr. Tanaka said after the class had calmed down a bit. "There were two conditions. The second condition was that we were to leave next week," he said casually. "So if you would be so kind to give this to your parents…" he said showing a piece of paper.

He was interrupted by another explosion of cheers.

* * *

"New York City, unbelievable!" Nicolas exclaimed during lunch break. The group was sitting like they always did during lunch break, together as a group.

"Yeah," Tristan said, "and the best part is… the school can spend a lot of money on cool trips to all kinds of museums, buildings…"

"Miho wants to go inside the Statue of Liberty!" Miho squealed.

"You guys wanna hear something funny?" Joey asked.

"What's up, Joey?" Téa asked.

"Yesterday, when I got home… there was a letter on my doormat. It was from Kaiba."

"Aw, that's so cute," Duke pouted, "Kaiba sent Joey a love letter."

The group laughed, but Joey didn't think it was funny at all. He lunged at Duke, taking him to the ground. Duke couldn't stop laughing, Joey reacted like he wanted him to react.

"Joey, stop!" Téa said, pulling him away from Duke. "You were saying something?"

"Oh yeah… as I was saying. Rich-boy sent me a letter. It was an invitation…"

"To a dinner at candlelight?" Tristan asked, building further on Duke's joke.

This time Joey ignored it and resumed talking after the little interruption.

"…for a tournament in New York City."

"No way!" Téa exclaimed. "That's a coincidence."

"Not really, Téa…" Yugi said. "I got a call from Pegasus yesterday. He invited me to a tournament… held in New York City."

"So there are two tournaments in New York?" Tristan asked, confused by what he had heard.

"I don't think so…" Bakura said. "I think that Mr. Stanford, Pegasus, and Kaiba are hosting the tournament together; it would make perfect sense. Pegasus and Kaiba invite the Duelists. Unfortunately, some of the Duelists are still students at school, so Mr. Stanford sponsors an excursion to New York City so everyone can compete."

"That would make sense…" Joey said. "But why would Kaiba work together with Pegasus?"

"I don't know, but they are business partners…"

"I was invited, too…" Nicolas said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, my adoptive father has connections you know," he winked.

"This is so awesome!" Yugi exclaimed. "I don't know how we will be able to compete though… We have to stick together with the class and all."

"We'll see Yug… besides, going to New York is awesome, anyway."

"You're right, Joey, this excursion is going to be the best ever!"

'I don't know guys…' Beth thought. 'This might turn out to be the _worst_ excursion ever if _he_ is right about this Mr. Stanford.'

* * *

"I'm sure you all heard about the excursion we are going on?" Ms. Akiyama asked. "You're very lucky, because in my time… we didn't have those fancy excursions. In my time we were lucky if we had an excursion to Tokyo."

The rest of the lesson consisted of working on the summary of the thesis they had to hand in the next day.

* * *

It was a rather boring week, waiting for the excursion to come the week after. A lot of teachers did devote their lessons to New York and America, though. Now it was Sunday, and tomorrow the excursion would take off. Literally take off, since they were flying from Domino City to San Francisco and then to New York. Everyone was very excited. The teachers were up to the difficult task to keep everyone quiet during their lessons, something not everyone succeeded in. Tomorrow they would have to gather at the schoolyard at three AM and then the plane would leave at six. The lucky teachers to tend for the students on the excursion were Mr. Tanaka, Ms. Akiyama, Mr. Ito, Mr. Koizumi – a lot of students weren't too happy about that – and the always surly Ms. Yukimura.

Everyone thought differently as they packed their bags and suitcases. Yugi thought about what this new tournament would be all about, what the prize would be. Joey thought about the strange cooperation between the rivals Pegasus and Kaiba. Miho thought about the many shops in New York and the romantic spots for her to be with Tristan. Duke was taking the opportunity to look for places he could expand his corporation, and Tristan… thought about the food.

'New York, there's so much I can discover and learn there…' Téa thought.

Bakura and Beth however, didn't look that much forward to the excursion. They had the feeling something bad was going to happen. As for Nicolas, he saw it as an opportunity to prove his dueling skills at the tournament and he was really looking forward to that.

They all dreamed about the great city of New York that night, only to be awakened by the sounds of their alarm clocks. Time to get out of bed, time to prepare to go to New York.

The classes gathered at the schoolyard as agreed on. There were a lot of escorts for this excursion. No kidding, they were going to New York, so of course they would need a lot of escorts. Everyone said their goodbyes to the people who brought them to the schoolyard. Parents, relatives, sometimes friends. Everyone got into the two busses that were needed to take the classes to Domino's airport. It didn't take long to get there, Domino Airport that is, since there was almost no traffic on the road. That was no surprise, since it was only three AM.

Once at the airport everyone had to be checked in. It took almost an hour to get everything done, and another thirty minutes to get all the luggage on the conveyor belt. From there the luggage would be transported into the plane. After that was done, there was still an hour left to spend at the airport before the plane would take off.

The gang decided to stroll through the gigantic airport, buying some snacks. When there was about half an hour left, they decided to go towards the terminals. With about fifteen minutes left, they took seats in the airplane that would take them to New York. They sat at the front of the plane, in the middle row; they were flying Economy Class. On the front row sat Mr. Tanaka next to Ms. Akiyama, Nicolas sat next to her and next to Nicolas sat Bakura. In the row behind them sat Yugi, Joey, Duke, and Tristan and behind them sat Téa, Miho, Beth, and Marik.

Mr. Koizumi and Ms. Yukimura checked if everyone was present and a few moments later the flight attendant asked to fasten their seatbelts, because the plane was about to take off. Some students were very anxious about the whole flying thing, since they'd never flown before. During the flight the tension lifted, a lot of students were chatting with each other or with the teachers, like Nicolas did. He was in a discussion with Ms. Akiyama about various historical subjects. Nicolas thought of Ms. Akiyama as his favorite teacher. Mr. Tanaka was sleeping already; he said that flying tired him.

After a few hours more students started to get tired and eventually everyone was asleep.

After sixteen hours of flight, the plane landed on American ground. San Francisco. They had to check out, get their luggage and check in again. After four hours they were in the air again. This time heading towards Newark Airport, New Jersey. From their they would take a bus that would bring them to their accommodations. It was a flight of about six hours and once they arrived, everyone was suffering from serious jetlag. The next day they would spend at their luxurious hotel that Mr. Stanford had so generously to let them stay at. Nobody minded a day of relaxation. It was very welcome after the long flights.

"Alright, students," Mr. Tanaka yelled loud enough so his homeroom students could hear him. "Ms. Akiyama and I will be your escorts this excursion, now if the boys will follow me, the girls can follow Ms. Akiyama."

The group split apart, following the teacher they were appointed to.

"Now you will hear who will share rooms with whom!" Mr. Tanaka said loudly while walking through a large hall. He started saying names; most groups were made of four people. "Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Duke, you have room number 332. That leaves Marik, Ryou, and Nicolas, you will have room 333."

"Oh great… I have to share rooms with Bakura…" Marik muttered. 'Room 333, how fitting…'

* * *

The next day Nicolas woke up refreshed between two bickering students. Bakura and Marik left off where they had ended the day before. There was someone knocking at the door, so Nicolas slowly walked over and opened the door.

"I was told to deliver this message," an employee said, giving Nicolas a letter.

"Guys, we've got mail," Nicolas said, closing the door.

"What does it say?" Marik asked, sitting on top of Bakura after their little fight got physical.

"Um, let's see…"

"_Dear Duelist,_

_I hope you are enjoying your stay at this luxurious hotel. At noon, the tournament will start at this address:"_

"It's signed by Mr. Stanford…" Nicolas said, after reading the letter out loud.

"So that tournament starts within… two hours?" Bakura asked.

"Yup, so I think I'm…"

Someone knocked at the door. Nicolas, who was still standing close to the door, opened it. It was Yugi and the rest of the group.

"Hi, guys, did you get this letter too?" Yugi asked.

"Yeah, I was going to change and then head off to compete."

"Same here, so we thought we could pick you guys up," Yugi said.

"Bakura and Marik are ready to go. If you give me five minutes I will be ready."

"Sure, Nicolas," Yugi said.

* * *

They arrived at a gigantic skyscraper a few minutes before noon. They walked through the large doors and talked to a security guard. He pointed them to an elevator and before they knew it, they walked into a gigantic hall with a large screen at the ceiling.

"Look there!" Joey yelled. "Weevil Underpants and Rex Raptor! What are they doing here?"

"There's Pegasus!" Yugi pointed at a man in a reddish suit with shoulder length silver hair.

"Yugi-boy, it's so good to see you here!" he exclaimed as he walked towards the group. "Oh, look at that! I didn't know you were friends with my nephew!" he said, pointing towards Nicolas.

"Pegasus is your uncle?" the group exclaimed. Nicolas simply shrugged.

"I told you he was influential…" he muttered.

"Such drama!" Pegasus said, "They should add these kinds of things to Funny Bunny to make it even more exciting!"

They all gave Pegasus a weird look, and Tristan was about to say something when the room suddenly went dark. The screen on the ceiling turned on and they could see a man behind his desk.

"Welcome, Duelists, to my humble shack. I hope you are ready for something you've never experienced before because the adventure you're about to go through will be truly… soul-catching," Stanford chuckled. "I hope this all doesn't intimidate you too much."

"I wouldn't have expected any less from Stanford," Kaiba whispered to Ishizu, who had joined him on his travel to New York.

Ishizu was about to refuse it when Kaiba had asked, but when she heard Marik was going to New York on an excursion she thought it would be fun to hop by once Kaiba had done what he had to do. She saw her little brother entering the room with Yugi and his friends, but now the room had gone dark and she couldn't get to him. She felt a little uncomfortable looking at the man who she saw only a week ago in person. He had something uncomforting about him, but she couldn't lay a finger on it.

Next to Kaiba stood Mokuba. Kaiba let him tag along, since he wouldn't leave the kid alone at home. Mokuba tended to be kidnapped quite often, and Kaiba didn't want that to happen while he was in New York.

"I truly hope that you will enjoy this tournament," Stanford said, finishing his speech.

"Well, guys," Yugi said, "it's time for another adventure!"

* * *

**I completely agree with Yugi, don't you guys do too? It is time to see what Mr. Stanford has planned, this will all happen next chapter. The tournament will kick off and there will be happening tons of stuff. A lot of characters will be involved in this story from now on, playing minor or larger roles.**

**I hope I didn't shock you to much for revealing Nicolas as Pegasus' nephew, which means that Pegasus is also his adoptive father. Nicolas' reasons for hiding this will eventually be told. Please review on your way out and I hope you enjoy the story so far.**


	14. Chapter 13

**So it begins... enjoy reading. The adventure has really started!**

**I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh**

* * *

Chapter 13:

* * *

"Sir?"

"Yes Strickland?" Stanford asked, fiddling with his ring.

"Now your speech is over, the competitors are eager to start and we don't even have any access to any Dueling facilities."

"Come now Strickland…" Stanford said with an evil broad grin, "Are you that easily fooled? You thought I was going to host a tournament!" Stanford's laughed boomed through the office. "I just wanted to get world's best Duelists in one room, so I can eliminate them all."

Strickland's eyes widened of shock. "Why would you want to do that?"

"I have two reasons, first I will put Pegasus and Kaiba out of business by doing this. KaibaCrop. and Industrial Illusions will be leaderless and it will be easy to take those companies over. Secondly I will be world's best Duelist from thence forth."

"But you don't even like the game…" Strickland sputtered.

"That's not the point! I want to be the best at everything and right now that is Dueling. Oh! I even have a third reason. I won't be bored for some time!" he said and another laugh boomed through the office.

"So how will you… eliminate them?" Strickland asked anxiously.

"You see this ring Strickland?"

"Yes sir…"

"I once stole it from a powerful man and then I used it to take his soul."

"Wha…?"

"And thanks to my former business associate Dartz, I got my hands on these cards." Stanford said, pointing to a few cards on his desk. Strickland took one of them into his hands.

"The Seal of Orichalcos?"

"Indeed, the most powerful card known to men."

"What has this all to do with your plan sir?"

"Observe!" Stanford said as he turned the webcam in his office on.

* * *

All Duelists were chatting a bit in the great hall when suddenly the lights flipped off again. The screen turned on and Mr. Stanford showed his face on the screen again.

"I have another announcement to make my dear Duelists. There was never going to be a tournament. In fact I tricked you all so I can eliminate you once and for all." Stanford said as his ring started to glow and radiated some kind of red-green light. "Farewell Duelists!" he yelled as everything turned dark in front of all Duelists' eyes.

* * *

"Sir! What have you done to them?" Strickland yelled at his boss. "This is going way to far I'm going to report you in at the police station!"

"Us, Strickland."

"What?"

"What have you done to us, is a better question."

"What do you mean sir?"

"With this magical Ring I've created my own realm, powered by the Orichalcos and the ancient power within this Ring. I've divided the Duelists into groups and now we will start to eliminate them one by one."

"W-we sir?"

"Mostly you Strickland, but now I know you aren't as loyal as I thought I will corrupt your mind!" Stanford said, putting his Ring to Strickland's head, who screamed in agony.

"Now, you're a mere slave to me. Go Strickland, eliminate all Duelists!"

'Once a Duelist gets eliminated the Orichalcos will take his soul, because this realm is powered by it. The more souls are taken, the more influence I have over this realm and eventually… all souls will be taken!' he couldn't oppress another booming laugh. 'Now let's see what the groups are, shall we.' He turned on a screen he could use to watch what was going on. 'Oh how amusing, Kaiba and his sidekick got paired together with Pegasus. This is going to be so much fun!'

"Sir, may I ask what has happened?" Clifford suddenly asked. He was standing with Nathanson in front of Stanford's desk.

"Clifford, I've told you about my plan haven't I?"

"Yes sir."

"Then you know what to do."

"Oh! Of course sir!" Clifford said and bowed. He raced out of the room as fast as he could and walked into a white light.

'You Clifford will go after these pathetic Duelists,' he thought as he pressed a button.

"Sir?"

"What is it Bryce?"

"Is there anything you require from me?"

"No, you can go upstairs, you have some time off."

"Alright sir." Nathanson said as he turned around and walked towards a door that would lead to a staircase.

'Soon I will have everything what my heart desires. That will only be temporarily, but now I have something to enjoy for the time being. I was lucky to have Pegasus nephew here too at the same time Pegasus was here. For as far as I know that is Pegasus' only remaining relative and capturing Mokuba Kaiba together with his brother is just perfect. I wonder how every non-duelist will react when they find out they need to Duel for their souls as well… I would be ruined if any of this got to the press. It would cost me billions of dollars to pay my lawyers for all the charges that would be pressed against me.'

He took a bottle of champagne and opened it. He filled a glass and then he enjoyed his newly created 'Real Life Soap', featuring a lot of Duelist fighting for their lives.

* * *

"Aw, my head…" Nicolas rubbed the back of his head as he slowly sat up on the grassy ground of a, what seemed to be a, meadow. He looked around, only to find Yugi and a small kid he didn't know.

"Is that you Nicolas?" Yugi asked.

"Yeah… where are we?"

"I don't know, but let's find out." Yugi said as he slowly stood up. He turned towards the small kid. "Mokuba? What are you doing here?"

Mokuba opened his eyes and wagged his head. "Yugi?" he asked confused. "Where is Seto? Where is my brother?" he asked as he franticly searched the area for his brother.

"He's not here Mokuba, it seems we are all alone."

"This seems so unreal, but the air around us is as real as…" Nicolas said.

"I know what you mean Nicolas, I hope the others are alright…" Yugi said.

"We must find them!"

"Right!"

* * *

"Oh great…" Kaiba muttered as he looked at Pegasus laying on the ground in front of him. He saw Ishizu laying not far ahead, both of them were still unconscious. Kaiba took the time to observe his surroundings. It was like he was in some sort of volcano, floating on a piece of rock between lava… or was it magma. The rock was floating towards the other side of the underground cavern, it seemed like an underground cavern since he couldn't see a gap when he looked up.

Ishizu began to stir, that's when Kaiba realized that Mokuba wasn't next to him anymore. "No! Mokuba!" he yelled. Pegasus began to wake up too.

Ishizu was already on her feet, when she saw Kaiba smashing his fist on the solid stone beneath him.

"Mokuba," he muttered.

"Someone got separated from his brother again…" Pegasus noted, trying to stand up.

"Shut it Pegasus, don't tempt me to throw you of this rock."

Pegasus looked around and asked rhetorically: "I think that would be devastating to my skin, wouldn't it?"

"Where are we?" Ishizu asked to no one in general.

"We are in a magical realm, I think." Pegasus said, Kaiba glared at him. "What?"

"It's not the time for you stupid jokes Pegasus…"

"It's no joke and why would my jokes be stupid? Why do you always say these hurtful things to me?" he pouted, trying to look offended.

"I think Pegasus is right, my Millennium Necklace is somehow rejecting any visions. This only happens when a more powerful magic is at play."

"We must get out of here!" Kaiba said.

"We'll have to wait until we are at the other side Kaiba-boy." Pegasus said. "And I don't mean dying."

"You see, this is what I mean! Stupid jokes all the time!"

"Well… at least I keep myself entertained. Would you like to do… other things to have some _fun_?"

"I'd rather jump into this lava, than doing what you are suggesting."

"I'm not suggesting anything Kaiba-boy, it's all your imagination."

"I think I'm going to get crazy."

* * *

"Will you get off me Bakura?" Marik asked irritated. Bakura was laying on top of him, unconscious; a pink haired boy, about Kaiba's age, laid a few feet away. "Great…"

Marik looked around, there wasn't something better to do. Everywhere he looked he saw the same thing. Jungle, jungle and more jungle. The ground underneath him was wet and muddy. It was quite dark, the sun only shone partly through the thick foliage. He suddenly noticed something on his arm, he moved his arm so he could see what he felt. He saw a duel disk on his arm and he held a deck, probably his own deck, in his hand.

'Strange…' he thought as he started to feel his Millennium Rod pressing against his back. He had taken it with him, he didn't know why. 'I hope Bakura wakes up soon, because this is getting really uncomfortable.'

* * *

Joey woke up, feeling like he was on a cooking plate. As he opened his eyes, he was almost blinded by the intense sunlight. Tristan laid not far from him, he was waking up too. Further away from him he could see a dark silhouette, someone he could recognize by his haircut from afar.

'Valon!'

"Are ya finally wakin' up? 'tis about time…" Valon said casually.

"Valon! What are you doing here?" Joey yelled.

"The same thin' ya're doin' 'ere. I'm 'ere to win tha tournamen'."

'Of course he is… could've known.' Joey thought.

"Do you know where we are?" Joey asked.

"Got meself thinkin' for some time, but… I dunno…" Valon shrugged. "I only know t'at this is some kinda deser'."

"Why do these kinds of weird things always happen to us?" Tristan complained. "Wait, where are the others?"

"We're the only ones 'ere, I dunno where my mates are…"

"I guess we'd better find them." Joey said.

"Right behind ya Wheelah."

* * *

"Where are we?"

"In a mall!" Miho exclaimed happily.

"Miho, is that you?"

"Yes!" Miho chirped in happiness.

"How did we get here?" Téa asked. "Last thing I remember was that Stanford guy threatening us…" She sat up slowly and noticed she had a duel disk on her arm, complete with her deck. She noticed Miho was carrying a duel disk too, that was strange since Miho didn't understand a thing about Duel Monsters. She looked around, she and Miho were in a gigantic mall, but there was no one around, except for Miho.

"Oh thank goodness!" Téa heard someone exclaim. She turned around and saw Beth running towards her. She was wearing some kind of jewelry on her forehead. "Are you two alright?" she asked when she was closer.

"Miho certainly is and I think I'm fine too." Téa said, pointing to the overjoyed Miho who was running from shop to shop.

"This is really strange, I've walked through this entire mall and besides us it's completely empty."

"I noticed."

"That's not all, there are no windows showing the outside world, no doors to get us there." Beth pointed upwards, "Those windows are the only ones and they only show the sky."

"So we are trapped in here?"

"Yeah, but there is one more thing. An elevator leads to the roof of this mall, but I've tried every button on every floor. The elevator doesn't move."

Miho had heard everything they said and she wasn't that happy now. "Tristan is not here…" she said. "Our friends aren't here…"

"We must do something!" Téa said.

"It seems that waiting is the only thing we can do Téa…" Beth said cheerlessly. "Let's hope someone will come to bust us out."

"We'd better go to that elevator you talked about, since it's the only possible way to get out…"

"Alright, it's this way." Beth said, standing up and leading the way.

* * *

"Yuk! I hate marshes!"

"Since when is that Viv?"

"Since… forever!"

"Look, you got to complain a little less and walk a little harder."

"It would've been far more easier if we didn't have to wait for that know-it-all."

"Hey!" Rebecca yelled, insulted by what Vivian Wong just said about her.

"Ignore her Becca, she isn't worth it…"

The three girls struggled to get through the unending marshland. Their feet got sucked away with every step they took. Mosquitoes flew around them, creepy fish slid along their legs in the swampy water.

"Stupid tournament!" Vivian cried.

"Girls, I think I see a piece of solid land right over there!"

"Finally!"

"Let's go!"

* * *

"Unbelievable…" Duke muttered. "From all the Duelists competing in this tournament, I got to be teamed up with Weevil and Rex… This isn't my day…"

They were walking through a canyon, walking along the stream of a small brook. They'd been walking for over an hour now and the canyon didn't seem to end just yet. There weren't too many trees or greenery, most of the sightings were arid, barren lands and large steep cliffs. At least they had something to drink.

Weevil and Rex had finally stopped fighting, it had tired them out and they couldn't rest just yet, that would be far too dangerous. Who knows, maybe a rock could fall down and crush them in their sleep.

"Look guys, a cave!" Duke said, pointing towards a small cave on the other side from the brook. "We can rest in there."

* * *

"Ah… everything is going according to plan… right Johann?"

"I guess so Mr. Stanford… but why did you split them up?"

"Divide and conquer Johann."

"Anyway sir, I have done as you asked… and it turned out to be a success."

"Oh really?"

"Yes sir, he is on his way right now to do your bidding."

"Does he know where to go first?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, then the elimination can truly begin. I want you to go to this little group Johann."

"You want me to be an eliminator?"

"Yes Johann and I think you will excel at it."

"I will not disappoint your sir."

"Good… very good. I think I will eliminate someone too… It's time to visit my friends…" Stanford said and another laugh boomed through his office.

* * *

A young boy staggered through a swamp. His eyes dull, his skin gray. He stumbles towards a group of three unknowing girls.

A loyal scientist walks on the roof of a mall, towards three girls who await their savior. He smirks, because he won't be doing any saving.

A wicked businessman walks towards a door, ready to do some of the dirty work himself. His victims will suffer and he will enjoy seeing them suffer.

A mindless slave walks towards his opponents, he can't afford to lose, because he knows what will happen if you lose in this world. Losing a duel means losing a soul. He is one of the few that knows this, but he has no will to fight against his master. That will was taken from him.

* * *

'Let the games begin!'

* * *

**Please review, grammar mistakes and all will be taken care of soon. Next chapter will feature one group, the chapter after another group and so on. I hope you enjoyed reading.**


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14, it's time for the first group. Enjoy reading!**

**DISCLAIMER: Still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh**

* * *

Chapter 14:

* * *

"Finally, something to eat!"

Yugi, Nicolas and Mokuba sat down underneath an apple tree. They had been walking through the endless meadows for some time now and it had made them quite hungry. The apples for the trees were delicious and no one doubted anymore about this whole thing being a fake.

"On the bright side… at least we now know this isn't a virtual world…" Nicolas said.

"I want to get out of here…" Mokuba said, "I want to know where Seto is."

"Don't worry Mokuba, we'll get to Kaiba as soon as we can." Yugi said.

"Thanks Yugi."

"Don't believe your ignorant friend little boy, because you three aren't going anywhere!" a man with short blond hair said. He was wearing a green jacket on top of purple trousers and black shoes.

The small group was startled by this man and the all jumped up. "Who are you? What do you want?" the yelled demandingly.

"I'm Valentin Séverin and I'm an eliminator. I challenge you to a duel!" he yelled.

"Who does he mean?" Mokuba asked.

"I think he doesn't care, as long as he gets to duel." Nicolas said.

"I will duel him." Yugi said determined to beat this 'Valentin'.

"No Yugi, let me take this one… please." Nicolas pleaded. "I think I will take him down within five turns, so we can forget this creepy guy."

"Okay Nicolas, but be careful."

"Come on Yugi, I have a deck full of cards this guy hasn't even seen. I think I'll make it." Nicolas said with a wink. He turned to the challenger: "Okay Purplepants, I accept your challenge!"

"Ah, how very good! Now let's duel! You may make the first move." Valentin said, drawing five cards.

**Nicolas: 4000**

**Valentin: 4000**

Nicolas smirked, 'That's mistake number one!' He glanced at his cards, his hand was perfect and he had the best starter card in his hand.

"Alright!" he yelled, drawing his first card. He looked at it and thought: 'Perfect! This is just the card I need to do some damage.' He put the card into his hand and took out another. "I play Little Green Warrior (500/300) in attack mode!" A small green clothed man with a tiny sword came to the field.

Valentin burst out in laughter. "That pathetic card only has five hundred Attack Points!"

"Yes, but he has an adorable Special Ability." Nicolas said smirking.

"Wait a minute, he showed that card during lunch break once!" Yugi exclaimed. "You're going to love what happens next Mokuba."

Mokuba watched, puzzled by Yugi's comment.

"Are you done laughing?" Nicolas asked, "I would like to continue the duel."

"Yes… I think I'm done." Valentin said, still chuckling from his opponent's move.

"Now for my monster's Special Ability. Little Green Warrior, drain five hundred of his Life Points!"

"What?"

"When summoned, my Little Green Warrior can drain five hundred of your Life Points, but that's not all…" Nicolas said. "Little Green Warrior, attack his Life Points directly!"

"What! You can't do that, that's cheating!"

"My card says otherwise Purplepants! It says: When summoned the first turn, this card is still allowed to attack."

The small warrior slashed his sword through Valentin and took away another five hundred Life Points.

"Awesome!" Mokuba exclaimed. "He has taken off a thousand Life Points from his opponent!"

"I'm not done yet… I play this handy Magic Card." A card with an hourglass flipped side wards appeared. "Rewind!"

"What does it do!" Valentin asked anxiously.

"…" Nicolas blinked. "Really?"

"Oh…"

"Yeah I thought so… but to be sure you understand… It rewinds the turn to just after the Main Phase. This means my Little Green Warrior has been summoned a few moments ago. You know what that means, don't you?"

"Eh…"

"Oh boy…"

"That's awesome!" Yugi exclaimed. "Now he can attack again with his Warrior."

Nicolas sighed. "First I will activate Little Green Warrior's first Special Ability. Drain five hundred Life Points!"

Valentin yelped as his Life Points dropped down to 2500.

"Now my Warrior, attack his Life Points directly!"

The little warrior slashed Valentin again and his Life Points went down to 2000.

"Now to finish my turn, I'll play this handy Magic Card… Graveyard Magic!"

"That doesn't sound good…" Valentin muttered.

"This randomly picks a card from my Graveyard and if it's a Magic Card, it automatically activates. Since I only have one card in my Graveyard…"

"The card he played a few moments ago…" Mokuba said.

"Yeah, he's going to replay Rewind!" Yugi said enthusiastically. "When I duel Nicolas, I'm not letting him take the first turn."

"Let's see which card I'm going to play again… Ah! Rewind! What a surprise…"

"I hate myself right now…" Valentin said angrily. "but I'm still going to win this Duel nevertheless." Valentin's Life Points dropped to 1000 Life Points.

"That ends my turn." Nicolas said triumphantly.

"Alright! I draw!" Valentin yelled as he drew a card from his Deck. 'Perfect!' "I play this card, Double Summon! It allows me to summon two monster this turn."

'This could be troublesome…' Nicolas thought.

"Oh no! If he summons two monsters and defeats Nicolas' Little Green Warrior, Nicolas' Life Points will be right open!"

"First I summon… Abare Ushioni (1200/1200) and this monster comes with a nice Special Ability." Valentin said as a red tri-eyed bull with white markings on his body appeared on the field. "I will do a coin toss and if I'm right about the outcome, I will inflict a thousand damage to your Life Points, but if I'm wrong I will get damaged and I will lose the Duel."

"Fine, toss the coin."

"I say tales!" Valentin yelled as he tossed the coin. The air around the Duelists was tense during this time, but the coin fell in Valentin's favor and Nicolas Life Points dropped to 3000. "Great! Now I will summon Battle Ox (1700/1000)!" An ox clad in yellow and red armor equipped with an axe appeared on the field. "Lastly I shall play this handy Magic Card I got from my boss, The Seal of Orichalcos!"

"Oh no!" Yugi and Mokuba said in unison. They both knew exactly what this meant, this was big trouble. A green circle with arcane marking appeared around Valentin as a green beam of light shot into the sky. The circle expanded its borders and closed Nicolas off from the outside world. A six pointed star appeared within the circle that surrounded both Valentin and Nicolas and I small replica of the Seal appeared on Valentin's forehead, Valentin's eyes glowed red.

"It raises my monsters' Attack Points by five hundred! It is over for you kid, the loser loses his soul to the Orichalcos!" Valentin laughed maniacally. "Battle Ox, attack his Little Green Warrior!" Battle Ox jumped towards his target when suddenly his Attack Points dropped to zero. "What is happening!"

"I've activated Kuriboh's Special Ability by discarding it to the Graveyard. That can only be done during the Battle Phase and it drops one monster's Attack Points to zero. Tough luck Purplepants." Nicolas said as Battle Ox was destroyed and Valentin took another five hundred points of damage to his Life Points.

Valentin growled, but regained his posture. "Abare [1700/1200], attack his Little Green Warrior!" and the red bull stormed at the little warrior. It was destroyed and Nicolas took twelve hundred points of damage. "I'll set one card face down."

**Nicolas: 1800**

**Valentin: 500**

"I think it's my turn again, so I'll draw." Nicolas said and he drew a card. "It was nice to duel you Valentin, but this Duel has come to an end. I play Monster Reborn to revive my Little Green Warrior."

"Why would you bring that low level monster back to the fie… oh right…"

"His Special Ability activates whenever summoned to the field. Say goodbye to your Life Points, because I don't think your Trap Card will help!"

"I will not lose my soul to such a pathetic monster!" Valentin screamed as his Life Points dropped to zero. "Please Mr. Stanford, stop this madness!"

The Seal closed in on Valentin and under loud screams, Valentin lost his soul. Green light flashed into the sky and the Seal disappeared, leaving a soulless Valentin.

"I'm glad that's over…" Nicolas said, swiping sweat from his forehead.

"You defeated him with only one monster!" Mokuba said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, but he would have defeated me if he had started the first turn… My starting cards were no match for his Seal of Orichalcos…" Nicolas walked to Valentin and kneeled next to him. Suddenly a white circle appeared around Valentin and he and Nicolas fell in it.

"Nicolas! Come Mokuba, we have to go after him!" Yugi said, jumping into the white hole. Mokuba didn't follow.

'Sorry Yugi, but I will wait for Seto.'

Yugi couldn't see all of that, he only saw the white blinding light around him.

* * *

Yugi woke up suffering hypothermia, he was laying on a thick layer of snow. Nicolas helped him on his feet. "Come on Yugi, we've got to get some shelter, it seems like it's going to storm."

"W-where is M-mokuba?" Yugi asked faintly, shivering from the cold.

"I don't know… I think he was too late to follow us."

Yugi lost unconsciousness.

'Stupid tournament, I was lucky not to black out when falling through that hole, otherwise Yugi and I would be freezing to death right now.'

"Look Yugi, a sort of cave." Nicolas said to the unconscious Yugi. "It'll be warmer in there."

'I wonder what happened to Mokuba…'

They reached a small icy cave within the frozen wasteland they'd been walking on for quite some time.

'I think I know how this all works… Every time you beat someone in dueling, you can get to the next stage… Eventually only two persons are left and the winner is the champion… if this is a tournament…'

He slowly walked, with Yugi still hanging over his shoulders, deeper into the cave.

'It's slippery in here… Man Yugi, why are you so heavy? Oh no… I think I'm getting weaker also… must keep walking.'

He went deeper and deeper inside, it wasn't as cold as it was outside, but it wasn't warm either. The tunnel he was walking through now went downwards. Suddenly, Nicolas slipped and his head hit the frozen floor. He blacked out and he and Yugi slid down the frozen tunnel.

* * *

"Seto!" Mokuba yelled, walking through the meadows on his own. He was determined to find his brother, before some lunatic would get to him. He saw the sun setting, casting a red glow over the green fields. Far on the horizon he could see some sheep, or were they cows?

"Seto… where are you?" Mokuba asked almost whispering. Tears began to heap in his eyes, his voice cracked. "I should have gone with Yugi and Nicolas… now I will never get out of here…"

As soon as he'd said that a dog ran towards him. He tugged Mokuba at his yellow jacket, wanting Mokuba to follow him. The dog ran away and Mokuba ran after him. They ran over a small hill and when they stood on top of it, Mokuba now totally exhausted, a white circle appeared on the ground. This time Mokuba didn't hesitate and jumped in, he allowed the white light to transport him to a different place and when Mokuba woke up again… he found himself in a gigantic room. The carpet was soft and Mokuba felt himself doze off. He noted that he was alone within this large room, but it was warm and comfortable. He did see that the room had no doors and no windows, but that it had one opening to another room. He smelled food coming from the other room and he felt his stomach rumble.

'I'll eat when I wake up…' he thought as he fell asleep.

* * *

"Mr. Stanford…" Stanford heard someone say through his earpiece. "Valentin lost the duel."

"I'm not surprised…"

"The Duel between Johann and his opponent is still ongoing, but at least one Duel went in our favor."

"Ah, very good…"

"How are you doing sir?"

"I'm in the middle of a Duel right now, so if you would please keep this short."

"Of course Mr. Stanford…"

"Was this all?"

"No sir, I wanted to say that five people already entered section two, but two of them are in very bad condition."

"Will they live?"

"I think so, but I'm keeping a closer eye on them."

"Good, now leave me to my Duel please."

"That wasn't everything yet sir."

"What now?"

"We have a Duelist who likes to do some work for us."

"Oh really?"

"Yes sir, but I shall show him to you when you are done."

"Excellent now leave me to my Duel."

"Yes sir."

* * *

_Mokuba Kaiba: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Yugi Muto: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Nicolas 'Pegasus': Section 2, 1 Duel played, 1 victory, 0 losses._

_Valentin Séverin: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

* * *

'One down and a lot to go…'

* * *

**Was that duel a bit too simple? I think it was, but I tried to make a point with this chapter... but that's for you to find out. Which group will be next? Cookies for those who guess right... Ok, I won't give cookies, but you will have my everlasting respect :P**

**Still I'm not really satisfied by this chapter, I think I could've done better... but I guess every writer has this once in a while. This group broke up pretty soon in comparison to other groups. There is one group that will break up even sooner, since Stanford is on the warpath... I will also give my respect to the first person who guesses the group Stanford is hunting right. The answers will be revealed when the chapters concerning these questions are up.**

**This group came through unharmed, next chapter will have some more revelations and some answers to the many questions rising in this story. Don't even think about the story being halfway through, because this is not true. As far as I know, we aren't even at a quarter of the story and I'm the author...**

**Now I'm sure I forgot to say one thing... Ah yes: Review puhlease**

**I think this is enough filling to get 2500 words... just five more... Yay! 2500!**


	16. Chapter 15

**(xxxx/xxxx) is a monster's normal ATK power, [xxxx/xxxx] is ATK power with Orichalcos or any other bonus.**

**A guest asked who was with Rebecca and Vivian. I can only say that it will be revealed very soon.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh**

* * *

Chapter 15:

* * *

"Solid ground at last!" Ishizu said relieved.

Kaiba, Pegasus and Ishizu had been sitting on a piece of rock floating on lava for a long time. They'd finally reached the other side of a large stream of lava and were now standing on a broad ridge above the boiling substance.

"I was starting to feel all warmed up and this time not because I was spending so much time with you Kaiba-boy."

"Shut up Pegasus, I'm not in the mood for your jokes." Kaiba walked away in a random direction and Pegasus, wanting to annoy his rival, followed him.

Ishizu glanced for a last time at the piece of rock they'd been sitting upon. She turned around two follow Pegasus and Kaiba, but looked right into a familiar face.

"Good morning Ms. Ishtar." he politely said. "Your life in this world is over!"

"Stanford! You startled me and what do you mean with my life being over?"

Stanford activated his Duel Disk by sliding his Deck into its proper place. "We will duel Ms. Ishtar!"

"I have to reject your challenge." Ishizu said, wanting to walk away.

The ridge broke off and Stanford and Ishizu landed on two separate rocks floating in the lava.

"You aren't going anywhere miss!" Stanford laughed.

Seeing that she had no choice, Ishizu activated her own Duel Disk. She'd discovered that everyone was wearing one, even Pegasus wore one even though Pegasus would never use this creation of KaibaCorp.

"It is wise to see you agreed Ms. Ishtar and look, there is our audience." Stanford said, pointing at Kaiba and Pegasus, who'd turned around to get Ishizu.

"Oh no…" Kaiba muttered when he saw Ishizu standing in front of Stanford, both of them having their Duel Disks activated.

"I didn't expect the big boss to show himself so soon…" Pegasus said.

"We must stop this Pegasus!"

"You want to swim to her through the lava Kaiba-boy?" Pegasus said, pointing at the lava; Kaiba fell silent. "I thought so. There's nothing we can do for Ishizu."

Kaiba bit his lip.

"Wait, since when do you feel concern for anyone else except your brother Kaiba-boy?" Pegasus asked, only to answer his only question by saying teasingly: "Oh… I get it… Kaiba-boy is growing up, isn't he?"

"Shut up Pegasus."

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Now Ms. Ishtar, I'll start off as the host of this tournament."

**Stanford: 4000**

**Ishizu: 4000**

"Oh come on Stanford, we know this isn't a tournament!" Kaiba yelled.

"True, this is a fun way of getting rid of you all!" Stanford said, laughing maniacally.

"Are we still Dueling Mr. Stanford?" Ishizu asked.

Stanford huffed and drew one card. "I'll play…" he said, holding up a card.

Pegasus went blank, seeing the card that once took his soul from him.

"No…" Kaiba whispered.

"The Seal of Orichalcos!" Stanford yelled as he slid the card in the Field Card Slot of his Duel Disk.

Within a few seconds the Seal was in play and surrounded Stanford and Ishizu.

"It will take your soul from you if you lose Ms. Ishtar… Not that it matters though, even if I hadn't played this card and won, you would have lost your soul. I played this card, because I like the five hundred Attack Point boost my monsters will get far too much." Stanford explained. "I once met with a business associate named Dartz and he showed his Deck. I've copied his Deck and now I possess the most powerful Deck ever created, the Orichalcos Deck!" he yelled triumphantly.

"This can't be good…" Pegasus said shakily.

"First I will summon, an acquaintance of Kaiba so I heard, Orichalcos Gigas!"

"He has Dartz's Deck…" Kaiba said flustered.

"Next I will pay five hundred Life Points to summon Orichalcos Kyutora!" Gigas [900/1500] appeared on the front row of the field and Kyutora [1000/500] on the back row. "I've won this game already! You can't possibly defeat this strategy!"

Ishizu stayed calm and looked at her hand, she drew another card. "I summon Agido (1500/1300) in attack mode. Agido, attack his Orichalcos Gigas!" Agodi easily destroyed Gigas, but Stanford didn't lose any Life Points. "Why didn't you lose any Life Points?"

"Because me Kyutora reduces damage inflicted due battle to zero, but you will be a lot more surprised when I activate Gigas' Special Ability. Gigas, return to the field!" Gigas rose from the ground, but this time five hundred points stronger. [1400/1500] "You see, whenever Gigas is destroyed, I can Special Summon him back due to his Special Ability and whenever he uses that ability he gains five hundred Attack Points!"

Ishizu gulped, but she wasn't about to give up. "I'll set one card face down and end my turn."

**Stanford: 3500**

**Ishizu: 4000**

"Very good, I can't draw due to reviving Gigas during your turn, but that's no problem. I'll play Orichalcos Deuteros!" A second ring formed on the outside of the Seal. "I will now gain five hundred Life Points for each monster I control every turn! Now Orichalcos Gigas, attack her Agido!" Gigas stormed at Agido, but was destroyed, but that meant Gigas was revived again with an extra five hundred Attack Points. [1900/1500] Still Stanford's Life Points remained unaffected due to Orichalcos Kyutora.

"It's my turn and I'll play my face down card, Raigeki Break. By discarding one card I can destroy a monster of my choice… I choose your Orichalcos Kyu…"

"Don't do that Ishizu! He will summon a monster that will defeat you in one blow if you destroy Kyutora!" Kaiba yelled.

Ishizu didn't finish what she said, but reconsidered. 'Maybe a Magic Card can destroy that Gigas…' "I choose your Orichalcos Gigas!" Gigas exploded, but to Ishizu's shock it was revived again by Stanford, now with 2400 Attack Points. "I switch my Agido to defense mode and I will place two cards face down."

**Stanford: 3500**

**Ishizu: 4000**

"Time for your demise Ms. Ishtar, with another Orichalcos card. Meet Orichalcos Tritos!" A third ring was added to the Seal. "I think you will love this new edition to the Seal." Stanford laughed maniacally. "First I'll receive a thousand Life Points… Now I'll summon Orichalcos Malevolence [2000/0]. With his Special Ability I can switch your Agido from defense to attack mode."

'This isn't going well and my Millennium Necklace isn't showing me anything of my future.' Ishizu thought as her Agido was destroyed by Gigas. Her Life Points dropped with nine hundred points.

"My Agido's Special Ability activates, I can summon a fairy monster from my Graveyard."

"But this is the first monster I sent to the Graveyard…"

"But I discarded one card myself, didn't I? I summon Petit Angel (600/900) in attack mode!"

"Very well, Orichalcos Malevolence… Attack her Petit Angel!"

"I don't think so, I play Zero Gravity. It changes all monsters' battle positions, so your Malevolence is now in defense mode."

"Orichalcos Tritos negates and destroys your card." Stanford said casually as his Orichalcos Malevolence crushed Ishizu's Petit Angel.

"What?"

"This isn't going well!" Kaiba said angrily. "Stanford you coward, let her go and duel me!"

"All in time, dear Kaiba."

**Stanford: 4500**

**Ishizu: 1700**

"First I'll summon Mudora (1500/1800) in attack mode. His Special Ability gives him two hundred more Attack Points for each Fairy monster in my Graveyard, so he gains four hundred points. Next I'll play my face down card, Card Destruction. We now must send our hands to the Graveyard. Since I now have two more Fairy monsters in my Graveyard my Mudora now has 2300 Attack points. Mudora, attack his Orichalcos Malevolence!" Mudora easily destroyed Orichalcos Malevolence, but Stanford didn't lose any Life Points.

"Great, my turn. First I'll summon Kanan the Swordmistress [1900/1400] in attack mode. Orichalcos Gigas, destroy her Mudora!" Gigas struck Mudora down with a mighty blow and Ishizu lost a hundred Life Points. "It is over now Ishizu Ishtar… Kanan, attack…" Stanford listened to his earpiece. "I'm not surprised… Ah, very good… I'm in the middle of a Duel right now, so if you would please keep this short… Was this all… Will they live?… Good, now leave me to my Duel please… What now… Oh really… Excellent now leave me to my Duel." He sighed, "Where was I? Oh yes I remember… Kanan, attack her Life Points directly!" Kanan rushed forward and swung with her greenish sword. Ishizu's Life Points dropped to zero.

"No!" Kaiba yelled.

Pegasus still didn't speak, he only grew whiter and whiter.

The Seal closed in on Ishizu, she felt worse than she'd ever felt.

"Don't be so hard on yourself little girl. No one can match my Deck! Farewell!"

The two rock with Ishizu on it floated close along the ridge now. Kaiba jumped on it and lifted Ishizu's soulless body in his arms. "You will pay for this Stanford!"

Stanford raised an eyebrow. "I don't think so Kaiba…".

"Duel me you coward!"

Stanford laughed, "Let me consider this offer…" He was silent for a split second. "No. Now goodbye Seto Kaiba!" he said, disappearing in a flash of light.

"Ishizu, snap out of it!" he yelled in vain. He knew her soul was gone.

Suddenly a white circle appeared underneath Kaiba, Pegasus and the soulless Ishizu and they all fell in.

* * *

Kaiba woke up next to Pegasus on a large rock, overlooking a river.

"Great… still not back home and still stuck with Pegasus."

"Kaiba-boy… you hurt me with saying that over and over again."

"Shut up Pegasus, I'm tired and not in the mood for jokes."

"I know you are upset with losing Ishizu…"

"I'm not upset Pegasus, shut it already!"

"Whatever you say… Kaiba-boy." Pegasus said and he stood up. "I'm not going to sit here and do nothing, I will do whatever it takes to bring Stanford down and I know you want to do the same. So get up and come with me!"

"And where do you want to go to?"

"I have no idea, but after sitting motionless on a rock in boiling lava I got sick of sitting and doing nothing."

"We have nowhere to go Pegasus…"

"Just walk Kaiba!" Pegasus suddenly yelled angrily. It caught Kaiba by surprise, making him flinch a bit.

"Fine…"

* * *

_Ishizu Ishtar: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

_Mokuba Kaiba: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Seto Kaiba: Section 2, 0 Duels Played._

_Yugi Muto: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Maximillion Pegasus: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Nicolas 'Pegasus': Section 2, 1 Duel played, 1 victory, 0 losses._

_Valentin Séverin: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

* * *

'Two down and not even near finished…'

* * *

"How did your Duel go Mr. Stanford?"

"It went very well Terance, but what are you still doing here? Shouldn't you be dueling?"

"Uh… no sir, you commanded me to stay at headquarters."

"Oh…"

"By the way, your son wants to speak to you sir."

"My son… Oh great… let him in…" Stanford sighed.

"Yes sir!"

Terance walked through the door and a few moments later a young man walked in accompanied by another young man.

"Julian Robert!" Stanford exclaimed, faking enthusiasm.

"Hi dad, I hope you didn't mind me bringing a friend?"

"I thought Bryce was your friend…"

"Yeah he is my friend too, but this is Ralph. He's my other friend."

"I'm impressed son, you've managed to make two friends."

"Thanks dad…"

'Naïve little brat…' Stanford thought. He didn't think much of his son. "What is it that you wanted to talk about?"

"Well, we entered this building and a few moments later the doors disappeared."

"That's because I've created a magical realm and transported everyone in this building there."

"Why doesn't this surprise me at all?"

"Because you, my boy, are used to my behavior. Now I want you to go out with this Duel Disk and challenge everyone you can find to a Duel, without losing of course."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I order you to do so and you will listen!" Stanford suddenly yelled angrily.

"Wow your father is a tough one…" Ralph whispered to Julian.

"Yeah…"

"Listen son, I have an easy target for you. You'd better not screw this one up, because if you do, you will regret it!" Stanford said.

"But father…"

"Get out of here now!" Stanford said, pointing his ring at the two men in front of him. They disappeared in a flash caused by Stanford's ring.

'Useless… Oh well, back to the game, it seems Johann's Duel is still on… Ah, my mind slave is nearing his target too, this is perfect. I didn't think everything would go this smooth and with two souls already in my possession my power grows stronger. This ring is the most powerful thing in the world!' he thought and another laugh roared out of his mouth. 'I'll never forget the moment I obtained it…'

* * *

_Start of flashback_

_I sneaked inside the house through an open window a few years ago, my hair wasn't graying yet… It was the right room and is was empty, my timing was perfect. The old man was dying and his family was with him in his bedroom, so this room was completely deserted. It was right there on the nightstand, such a great power up for grabs. I simply reached for it and put it on my finger, it was all so easy. I knew the entire family was in the next room, but I had to wait for the two to be alone. After I saw the old man's daughter leave with her husband, that stupid pansy idiot, I knew the time was right. The old man only had one son and a daughter, since the daughter left the old man had to be alone with his son. It was perfect, all was as planned. He slowly slipped into the room and saw the old man in bed, talking to his son. I couldn't hear what he said, but I didn't care anyway. I stole the son's soul right in front of the dying old man and because I felt generous, I stole the old fool's soul too. If only that brat hadn't seen me…_

_End of flashback_

* * *

'Don't think you can scare me you brat… I will be far more powerful than you can ever imagine once I've obtained these souls. I will finally get rid of you once and for all and I will enjoy seeing you squirm under all my might…' Stanford smirked, his plan was perfect. This all started for no reason and that's what makes it so much fun. No one will ever find a reason for his doings, because there is none. That means no one can set things right and stop him from accomplishing what he wants, because Stanford knew a villain's history is mostly part of his undoing. 'I'm only a few duels away from defeating you, but first… I will toy a bit with you. Now let's see if I can find your weak spot…'

* * *

**That's that, I hope you enjoyed it. Please review and tell what you think. Each chapter a bit more of Stanford will be revealed. Next chapter will feature an other duel -of course- and some more revelations.**


	17. Chapter 16

**Last two chapters were focused around the duels, this chapter will be a bit different. Enjoy reading it!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh**

* * *

Chapter 16:

* * *

"Oh this is great. We were lucky this food shop wasn't closed, otherwise we would surely starve to death." Téa said.

"Yeah, but if we don't get out of here…"

"Don't worry Beth, I'm sure we will be saved soon."

The three girls were sitting at a table in a restaurant at the deserted mall. Through the windows they could see the glass elevator shaft. They were eating some sandwiches made from the stored food inside the shop. They were lucky to find the little shop, they were starving for as long as they woke up.

* * *

"_Dith?" he sounded worried._

"_Yeah?" I asked._

"_Is something wrong with you?"_

"_No don't worry." I said._

"_Good," he smiled, "I want to show you something."_

_Something on his hand glowed brightly and before I knew it we were floating in the sky. I looked downwards and saw a beautiful city. The houses had orange-reddish roofs and beige walls. Other buildings were of solid stone and had beautiful decorations. The streets were crowded and the people looked happy. The women were clothed in beautiful colored dresses and the men in different colored robes. I saw markets, crowded with merchants selling all kinds of things. I saw a few armed people and I looked at my lord and friend._

"_Law enforcers." he explained as if he knew what I was about to ask._

_He lead me deeper into the city to what he called the 'upper ring'._

"_This is where the most important people of this city live, including the ruler… my forefather," he said, "Look, that's him." He pointed to a man in similar looking robes as he wore, only with more silver and gold decorations. The man had brown hair and gold irises. Next to him walked his wife, a pretty girl with an Indian tan and chestnut brown hair. She wore, unlike her husband, a crown in shape of a rising sun. A child ran in front of his parents, in bright blue robes with gold decorations._

_As I looked closer I was shocked by what I saw. The man wore a silver hand bracelet, just as Lord Merus did. His wife wore a headband, the same one Merus gave to me. The child, running in front of his parents wore a ring on his finger, one with a red ruby. The ring that was stolen a few years ago. I glanced at Merus, asking for an explanation. _

"_It should have been like this…" he said, "Like it was in the old times."_

"_Where are we?"_

"_This is the origin of our kind Dith, this is the grand city of Idonia in the golden ages of our people. The three people you see there is all what remains of the royal house. The man is my namesake, the greatest ruler our people ever knew. He is the one who created the three jewels and locked the royal house's magical powers within it."_

"_So the bracelet, headband and the ring are three jewels with magical powers?"_

"_Yes Dith, but they should belong to my family."_

_I was still confused by Merus' explanation and he felt it._

"_The three jewels have always been passed in a certain order. The father would wear the hand bracelet, the symbol of the king. His wife would wear the headband, symbol of the queen. The firstborn son would wear the ring, symbol of the prince. It's a tradition that lasted for millennia, until I came…"_

"_What do you mean?" I asked. I didn't know anything about the old ways, only the mentors and the eldest in the tribes knew about it. I didn't understand why Lord Merus was telling me this._

"_One is only allowed to wear the bracelet when older than twenty-one, but… I wore it when I was nine." he said._

"_I knew that, but you were forced to because your father was killed."_

"_I should have worn the ring Dith, but since it was stolen I grabbed the bracelet and put it on, disgracing my family by doing so."_

"_There was nothing you could do…"_

"_There was! I should have waited till I was twenty-one!"_

"_So why didn't you?" I asked. 'Why did Merus always had to be so cryptic?'_

"_I had to save my brother."_

"_Wasn't he in the village?"_

"_I was not talking about the thief hurting my brother Dith, I meant something bigger, but I can't tell you about that."_

"_Wait a minute… You said the man wore the bracelet and his wife the headband… Are you proposing to me?" _

"_Indeed I am Dith." _

_I was shocked by his answer, I didn't know he felt that much for me._

"_You can say no Dith, since your parents and my parents are both dead they can't force us."_

"_Force us?"_

_He sighed and started to explain again. "Your family and my family were the last ones with pure blood. From the moment I was born my parents were looking for a future wife for me… with one condition. She had to be pure of blood. One year later you were born and you had the pure blood. My grandfather and your father arranged our marriage when you were only two months old. After my family was… you know… your father was the only person left who knew about the arranged marriage, besides me of course."_

"_Is that why he never told me to stay away from you?"_

"_Exactly, but when he passed away so did his plans of our marriage."_

"_So why did you…? You could've stood up against my father about it."_

"_First I saw it as my duty towards the people, but as I spent more time with you I really fell in love."_

"_I know, but isn't marriage a bit too…" I protested slightly. I expected Merus to get angry, but he didn't. 'This must be so much more awkward for him than for me…' I thought. I suddenly remembered a conversation with my father, he once said to me that once I had to do my duty in order to save what our forefathers had built. I now knew what he meant._

"_Think Dithanei and don't forget that you now wield an ancient power. Don't be afraid to use it if you must, because…" _

"_Beth?" "Beth?" "Beth is something wrong?"_

* * *

"Uh, what?" Beth asked. She looked right into Miho's eyes and was startled by a strange voice.

Miho pointed outside, where Téa was dueling a person in a lab coat. "Téa is in trouble."

"Have I been sleeping?" Beth almost yelled at Miho and jumped up.

"Yeah, you slept right through the creepy part."

"What happened?"

"We were eating and then you fell asleep. Miho and Téa were talking about Tristan and Yugi when suddenly that man stepped out of the elevator. Miho and Téa were so excited that we ran towards the man and forgot about you, but when we talked to him he challenged Téa to a Duel!" Miho said.

"How long is the Duel going on now?"

"For quite some time, the creepy man's name is Johann."

"John?"

"No.. Johann, with two n's."

"Weird…" Beth said as she and Miho walked outside.

**Johann: 2100**

**Téa: 650**

"Your face down monster is finished! Kinetic Soldier (1350/1800), attack!"

Kinetic soldier's attack destroyed Téa's face down monster, which seemed to be the Magician of Faith.

"I can bring one Magic Card back from the Graveyard!" Téa said and she took a card out of the Graveyard.

"I end my turn." Johann said, "It's not like you can do anything you will be destroyed whatever you do, my calculations told me that much."

"We'll see about that! I play the card I returned from the Graveyard, Soul Exchange! This allows me to sacrifice monsters on your side of the field."

"No!"

"Yes! I sacrifice your Kinetic Soldier to summon, Dark Witch (1800/1700). I'll set one card face down and end my turn."

"You'll pay for that! I'll summon Battle Footballer (1000/2100) in Attack Mode and I'll place this card face down, that ends my turn little girl." Johann laughed defiantly.

'That Battle Footballer is far too weak, so his face down card must be a trap, but if I don't attack he could sacrifice it for a stronger monster…' Téa thought.

"Come on Téa!" Beth yelled. "You can do this!"

"Yeah!" Miho yelled.

"Alright, I'll draw first." Téa drew a card from her Deck. 'Oh great, with this card I can attack Johann and cause some real damage!'

"What are you grinning about little girl? I calculated you would be begging for help at this moment…"

"It's nothing… I'll play this card face down and then I'll attack your Battle Footballer with my Dark Witch!"

Dark Witch was about to destroy Battle Footballer when Johann activated his Trap Card.

"I activate my trap, Sakuretsu Armor! According to my calculations it destroys your monster and leaves mine without a scratch."

"Think again, I activate my face down card: Guard Mines! It negates your card and destroys it, but you also take five hundred points of damage!"

"What? No!"

"And because my Dark Witch destroyed your Battle Footballer you take another eight hundred points of damage!" Téa said as Johann's Life Points dropped by 1300. "I end my turn."

**Johann: 800**

**Téa: 650**

"I summon Jetroid (1200/1800) in Attack Mode!" Johann yelled. A small pink plane came on to the field. Johann played this to trick Téa into attacking. Jetroid's Special Ability allowed him to play Trap Cards from his hand. He didn't have the Trap Card he wanted yet, but that wasn't a problem. Johann was a patient man, a scientist. He liked playing with peoples' minds. "This ends my turn."

"I'll summon Royal Knight (1300/800) in Attack Mode! Royal Knight attack his Jetroid!"

"Thanks to Jetroid's Special Ability I can play Negate Attack! It negates your attack and you won't be able to attack again. This Duel is going just fine according to my calculations."

"I'll play one card face down and end my turn." Téa said. She was a bit angry; she thought she had the Duel in the bag now, since Johann hadn't played any cards face down. Once again she was wrong.

"Perfect…" Johann said as he saw the card he'd drawn. "I summon Inpachi (1600/1900) in Attack Mode! I calculate that this is the end for you." A robot-like tree grew from the ground, it was glowing red like it was on fire, but it didn't char.

'Why is he playing those monsters in Attack Mode, while they're much stronger in Defense Mode?' Téa thought.

"Téa! He's going to play Shield and Sword!" Beth yelled as she was on to Johann's plan.

"Indeed! I play Shield and Sword, now our monsters' Attack Points switch with their Defense Points. I think I've won the Duel now, because –according to my calculations- you only have a chance of nine percent to win at the moment." Johann laughed and then thought deeply. "I think I will attack your Dark Witch first, since she is the most troublesome of your monsters, because I think you will use that face down card to save your Royal Knight. Inpachi (1900/1600), attack her Dark Witch (1700/1800)!"

"You've miscalculated Johann, because I reveal my face down card, Fiery Fervor!"

"Uh oh…"

"It doubles the Attack Points of a monster I equip this card with during battle for as long as the card is in play, but the opponent must have more attack points than my monster's original Attack Points. I choose my Dark Witch and since your Inpachi is stronger than my Dark Witch her Attack Points are doubled."

"I was so close… this shouldn't have happened… My calculations…" Johann muttered in disbelief.

"Your calculations were wrong! Dark Witch, counter attack!" Dark Witch's Attack Points doubled to 3400 and destroyed Inpachi with ease. "According to my calculations you lose 1500 Life Points, so I think you lose the Duel."

Johann growled and was about to lunge forward to Téa, but he was stopped by a green circle forming around him. "Wait, what is happening?" he yelled.

"T-that's the Seal of Orichalcos…" Téa stuttered, "but we never played the card."

Téa, Miho and Beth watched in horror as Johann's soul was ripped from his body. As the Seal dissipated green smoke rose from under Johann's soulless body. When the smoke cleared Johann's body was gone.

"Miho thinks she understands it now." Miho said, "We must win a Duel so we can get out of a playing area. When you lose you get eliminated and you Téa, you eliminated an eliminator."

"Yeah… thanks to that Johann dude we can use the elevator." Beth said.

"I suggest we spend the night here and get out of here tomorrow morning. We can sleep in the little food shop there and we can have breakfast before we get out of here." Téa said.

"Good idea Téa, we don't know where we could get into and a I'm really tired for some reason."

"Miho agrees… let's go back to the food shop."

* * *

_Beth Dabney: Section 1, 0 Duels played._

_Téa Gardner: Section 1, 1 Duel played, 1 victory, 0 losses._

_Ishizu Ishtar: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

_Mokuba Kaiba: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Seto Kaiba: Section 2, 0 Duels Played._

_Yugi Muto: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Johann Neumann: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

_Miho Nosaka: Section 1, 0 Duels played._

_Maximillion Pegasus: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Nicolas 'Pegasus': Section 2, 1 Duel played, 1 victory, 0 losses._

_Valentin Séverin: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

* * *

'This is going to take some time… the list is growing, soon he will be powerful enough. I won't allow it, I will make sure it won't get to this. I am watching your every move Stanford, don't think you can outrun me by going into some magical realm where space and time are negated. I'm counting on your plan to fail Stanford, because I need your plan to fail in order for my plan to succeed. There are five people in your tournament who can bring you down, but you aren't focusing on eliminating them? It will be your undoing Stanford…'

* * *

"Johann lost sir."

"I don't care, I won my duel… and besides, it's not your job to notify me of things I already know. I can watch every duel being played you know. Now get out of here." Stanford said irritated by his employees. 'I won't let those idiots spoil my fun… I'm enjoying this way too much. Look at those girls,' he chuckled mentally, 'they have no idea why Johann was taken by the Seal. It's so simple, since this realm is powered by it you lose your soul whenever you lose a game. This plan is so perfect, all of my plans are. That brat can't reach me here and when I'm finished he won't be able to withstand my power!'

* * *

**The list will show up after every duel, eventually more people will be eliminated untill the champion wins the 'tournament'. Place your bets on the final 3. Review please! **


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17 already, this story has come a long way and I don't plan on finishing it yet. I really liked writing this chapter, it will be a two parter, maybe a three parter, it depends on how this duel is going to work out. Enjoy it!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh**

* * *

Chapter 17:

* * *

Their bare feet were starting to get used to the hot sand of the desert, at least it was better than to let them shrivel inside even hotter shoes. The sun burned into their bodies. It was hot, inhumanly hot. They slogged through the desert getting thirstier by the second. They had no water and there wasn't any source of it either. Tristan was starting to act weird, Joey was starting to get worried about it. After another hour of walking, Tristan started to complain about a headache and he started to feel dizzy. It was just like Joey suspected, Tristan was suffering from a sunstroke.

"Stupid Tristan, why did you have to wear a black T-shirt…" Joey complained, supporting Tristan with walking.

"Gee, as if I knew we were going to be sent right into a desert." Tristan muttered.

"Weird stuff happens to us all the time."

Valon kept quiet, if he would say something wrong… they mightn't take it so well. He'd given his red jacket to Tristan so he could pull it over his head for some shadow. They reached the top of another dune; all they could see was another dune in front of them.

"'nothah dune, our luck 'as left us…" Valon said as he was the first one to get to the top. "Should I carry 'im now Wheelah? I think 't would be fair if we'd take turn in helpin' 'im."

"C'me on desert give us a brake will ya?" Joey yelled.

"Are ya gettin' sick too Wheelah?" Valon asked in response.

"Heh?"

"You're talkin' to a dese't…"

"Just shut up and carry Tristan." Joey said a tad angrily.

They continued walking again, downwards this time. Downwards was easier than going up, but in the sands –hot sand- it still was a difficult task. Joey strayed further from Valon and Tristan, slipped and rolled downhill. Valon laughed, with an unconscious Tristan hanging on his shoulder, and tried to run downhill. He didn't slip and before he knew it he stood next to a dizzy Joey.

"Ah man, now my clothes are filled with sand!" he complained.

"At leas' ya got down faster, just like ya wanted."

"Are you enjoying yourself Valon?"

"More than evah," he laughed.

Joey growled and stood up, muttering something as he walked away.

It was uphill again, Valon struggled to keep up with Joey. 'How much does this guy eat to weigh this much…? And if he eats that much, how doesn't he get fat?' He took another step, but landed wrong on his feet, spraining his ankle doing so and almost falling backwards. Joey caught him just in time by the hand, or he and Tristan would be laying at the bottom of the dune again.

"Thanks Wheelah, I'll be fine now." Valon said as Joey pulled him up. He wanted to walk again, but when he took another step he noticed the pain coming from his ankle.

Joey could read the pain from his face and said: "Give me Tristan, you've sprained your ankle, you'll walk better without him."

Valon nodded and handed Tristan over to Joey. Valon limped futher and Joey followed with Tristan. When they finally, after half an hour of climbing, reached the top of the dune they could see a small oasis in a valley at the feet of the dune they were standing on.

"Thank you desert!" Joey exclaimed in joy. Valon gave him a weird look, Joey glared back in response. "We can give Tristan some water there and he can rest in the shadows. If we're lucky he will be better in no-time!"

"Than what 're we waitin' for?"

Valon started to descend, still limping because of his injury.

"C'me on Tristan, we're almost there. Hang in there." Joey said to Tristan as he too started to walk downwards, dragging his friend along.

Valon was getting far ahead, he couldn't wait to jump into the cool water of the oasis, if it wasn't a mirage. He felt sweaty, overheated and sandblasted. The oasis was just the thing he needed right now. He looked back to see Joey catching in on him; he decided to wait for the person who once was his rival. He had put the quarrels of the past behind him, but he didn't know if Joey had done that also. He thought Joey had, but he didn't know for sure.

"Thanks for waiting Valon," Joey mumbled.

Valon heard him and couldn't suppress a smile. A gust of air suddenly swept him of his feet and he fell into the warm sand; Joey could barely keep himself standing. Sand blew all around them, making it difficult to see anything.

"Oh no, not a sandstorm!" Joey yelled angrily, being fed up with all the misfortune coming upon them. "First walking through a desert without water, than Tristan having a sunstroke, Valon spraining his ankle and now a sandstorm? What have I ever done wrong?"

"Wheelah, ya shouldn't talk 'hat much with tha sandstorm and all." Valon said holding his hand in front of his mouth.

The wind stopped blowing, the sand stopped flowing into their faces; finally they could see again. A short man stood in front of the two –and Tristan-.

"I don't think mister Shorty is going to help us with Tristan, do you?" Joey asked Valon whispering.

Valon didn't answer, but nodded. The man in front of them had a devious look over him.

"Gentlemen," he said with a large grin. "Are we lost in the big bad desert?"

"Who are you?" Joey asked, he was surprised by how hostile he sounded.

"I'm known to my associates as Strickland, but you can call me sir."

"Aw great, 'nothah lunatic who wan's ta be tha big bully…" Valon said.

"I'm not here to bully you, no, no. I'm here to play a little game. I want to Duel against one of you three… two, but wait… no, that isn't fair… you wouldn't stand a chance against me…"

Joey growled at this remark, clenching his fists.

"I have a great idea! I will Duel you two at the same time, that's more fair don't you think?"

Joey was about to give Strickland a smaller nose, but before he could even move a muscle Valon stopped him.

"A'right, but don't think you're off the hook Shorty!" Joey threatened. He wasn't going to allow this little pipsqueak to insult him.

"Marvelous, but let's make this more interesting. You two gents seem like the adventurous types; what do you say if you two share an amount of 8000 Life Points?"

"Ehr…"

"Wait! That's not all, I will explain. Both of us will have 8000 Life Points, I will take my turn, after that one of you will take a turn. Then it's back to me and then the other player is up and so on."

"Doesn't that give us an advantage?" Joey asked.

"You are right, you two will have two Decks and I will have one… You two could share one Deck…"

"No way!" Valon said.

"Or I will use two."

"Fine…"

"Splendid, this is going to be so much fun. Let's duel!" Strickland said, activating his Duel Disk; an action that was copied by Valon and Joey. "Since I'm in such a generous mood, one of you may start off. Remember you two, you share one amount of Life Points, so you share one field."

"Wait, so we can only summon five monsters?" Joey asked.

"According to the rules, but rules are there to be broken. I will allow you to summon ten monsters for this one time, not that it matters because I will win anyway."

"So if I summon a monster, Valon can use it to attack you next turn?"

"Yes! See it as two persons sharing one Duelist's body." Strickland said a bit irritated by the slow Duelist in front of him.

Joey and Valon deliberated who should start. Eventually they decided Joey would take the first turn.

"I've got one question." Valon announced. "Are we allowed ta show eachothah our face down cards?"

"Yes."

Valon nodded and allowed Joey to play his turn. Joey looked into his hand and Valon did so too, since they were allowed to do so. Joey pointed at one card and Valon nodded in approval, but he also pointed at another card.

"Okay, I'll play one card face down and a monster in defense mode." Joey then said.

"Look at that, the two are working together. You two are surprising me already, but I like surprises a lot." Strickland said, his creepy grin still plastered on his face.

"Oh yeah, why's that?" Joey asked.

"Because I'm always right about those surprises. When I was young and my parents wanted to surprise me with something, I always guessed right about the 'surprise'. Then, when I grew up and other people had 'surprises' in store for me, I somehow always knew about them. It's hard to explain, but the point is… your dueling won't surprise me at all. I know your Decks inside out, I know your weaknesses and I will exploit them… or not, because I will spoil the fun if I do."

"Is this just me Valon, or is this guy crazy?"

"You really want me ta ans'er 'hat?"

"Neh, never mind, but let's make this quick; Tristan needs to get some water fast."

"Right."

"Let's see… I will play one card in defense mode and then I'll activate a funny little card you two know very well." Strickland erupted in a long maniacal laugh that people might be able to hear from miles away.

"He can't be serious… he can't have tha card I'm thinkin' about…" Valon said, whimpering slightly.

"Ah, I'm so very, very, very, very deadly serious! I play…"

"No…"

"…the Seal…"

"That can't be…"

"…of Orichalcos!"

Joey and Valon both gulped as Strickland placed the card in his Field Card Slot. The 'familiar' green circle with arcane marks formed around the three duelists; the star appeared within it.

"I know something fun!" Strickland exclaimed. "And since you can't escape now, you will have to agree to this."

"What now…?"

"You will not Duel for you own soul."

"What!" the Duelist pair exclaimed in unison.

"You will Duel for his soul!" he said, pointing towards Tristan.

"Wha…? You can't control tha Seal!" Valon yelled, he wanted to get out of the mess as soon as possible.

"You're absolutely right, I can't control the Seal, but my boss can though. Now what do you say?"

"We can't do this to Tristan." Joey whispered.

"I think it'd be a lot bettah fo' Tristan if we play fo' his soul."

"Are you crazy Valon?"

"Think about it Wheelah, if we lose we lose our souls, 'ho will help him? If we lose with his soul on tha line, 't won't be 'hat bad, cuz…"

"Yeah I get it… you're right…" Joey said. "A'right Shorty, we agree."

"Perfect, now I'll end my turn by placing a card face down."

"It's your turn Valon," Joey said with an encouraging nod.

Valon sighed and took a look at his hand. 'These cards aren't any good right now, but maybe…' he thought. Joey tried to peek at his cards, but he shrugged Joey off.

"Valon, what are ya doing?" Joey asked demandingly.

"Trus' me Wheelah, I kno' wha' I'm doin'." He turned his attention to his cards again. "I play this lill' Magic Card called Card Destruction! We mus' discard our hands and replace 'em with tha same amount of cards."

Everyone discarded their hand to the Graveyard.

'I hope Valon knows what he is doing…' Joey thought. Even though he forgave Valon what he did to him, and Mai, he still didn't trust him fully.

'What are those two up to…'

Valon looked at his new hand, he was somewhat sad not to have brought his Armor Deck with him. "A'right, I'll play Monster Reborn ta bring back Joey's card." Baby Dragon appeared as it was one of the four cards Joey had to sent to the grave. "Next I'll play 'nothah Magic Card known as Polymerization. I'll combine lil' Baby Dragon with Alligator's Sword ta form, Alligator's Sword Dragon (1700/1500)! Nex' I'll summon Fox Fire (300/200) in Defense Mode. I think that's enough fo' now, so I'll end my turn."

'I'll admit, I'd not expected this move… that Valon is using another Deck.'

'Sweet, Valon made a great move!' Joey thought, 'We now have Alligator's Sword Dragon and Fox Fire to protect our Life Points and my face down card. Now that creep can take his turn again, but I don't think he can stand up to my and Valon's monsters.'

"Joey, if you think that was somethin' just wait fo' what I have in store next." Valon whispered with a wink.

"So it is my turn now, let's see… I'll play another monster in Defense Mode and place another card face down." Strickland said.

"C'me on, is that all ya can do? Even my grandma has more guts." Joey said angrily. He hated it when people only played cards face down.

"So you did inherit your stupidity from someone in your family?" Strickland retorted.

Joey almost went sky high after this remark, but Valon held him back again. "C'me on Wheelah, he's not worth it."

"It's your turn Wheeler, Joseph." Strickland said, amused by how his last remark had worked out.

"I hope you don't mind me playing my Axe Raider (1700/1150) in Attack Mode! Since I don't trust your two face down cards I'll throw in a face down myself and end my turn." Joey said. 'Hehehe, next turn it's going to be so much fun. If Shorty only knew what monster I drew this turn.'

"Wow, you really scare me with that face you just pulled. Is this how you win all your Duels, by scaring your opponents with your face?" Strickland asked.

Joey heated up once again and Valon stopped him once more.

"Let's see… I'll sacrifice my monsters to summon: Rabidragon (2950/2900)!" Strickland yelled. A dragon whit snow-like wings and legs, emerged on the field. He had giant ears and two tusks grown from his mouth, which was covered with razor-like teeth. "Stare into the mutated face of defeat gentlemen! You will have to come up with something strong if you don't want to lose your friend over there."

"I didn't see that one coming…" Joey thought out loud.

"Of course you didn't, you are a fool and soon your friend shall pay the price of your mistakes. Since I'm not an idiot, I won't attack you right now. I end my turn, but know this; soon my dragon will attack and it will end you both. Then your friend will pay with his soul and my master will grow in power, until he will get rid of all of you Duelists! Face it you two, you won't beat me; not here, not now!"

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**Sooooooooooooo, did you like it? Did you? Please tell me you liked it? You can do so be reviewing.**

**Next chapter will kick off where I left this chapter, so now you know what you're waiting for.**

**Please review.**

**Thanks.**


	19. Chapter 18

**This chapter took me some time... the duel was quite a tough one to write, so much things I had to remember and so much I had to correct once in a while when I realised I screwed some parts up...**

**Anywho... here is the new chapter. Enjoy the second part of the duel between Strickland and Team Joey... or was it Team Valon, I forgot.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. I do own this plot, story and my OC's and myself.**

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Chapter 18:

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"Alright you fools, my Rabidragon gains five hundred Attack Points due to the Seal of Orichalcos. It's your turn now."

"A'right, I think I'll summon Hinotama Soul (600/500) and play one card face down. It's back ta you."

"Alright then, it's time to show what my monster can do! I'll first play this handy Magic Card, Cold Wave. Now you can't set or play any Magic of Trap Cards for an entire turn, which means I can attack without having to worry about a Trap!" Strickland laughed. "Rabidragon [3450/2900], show them what pain is about by attacking their Alligator's Sword Dragon!" The rabbit-like dragon blasted Alligator's Sword Dragon to the Graveyard with ease, resulting in a great loss of Life Points for Joey and Valon. "I think that's enough for now, so give it your best shot Wheeler, Joseph."

"Do you really have to say my name like that?" Joey asked.

"No, but I like to annoy you by doing so."

Joey snorted and drew a card. "A'right, I think I'll sacrifice Hinotama Soul and Axe Raider to summon Jinzo (2400/1500)! Now let's get rid of your Trap Cards shall we, since Valon and I only have Magic Cards face down, we won't lose any cards." Jinzo scanned the field and destroyed none of Strickland's two face down cards. "I'll end my turn."

**Strickland: 8000**

**Joey&Valon: 6250**

"How very sloppy Joseph, leaving your Jinzo unprotected like that. Prepare to lose another thousand of your Life Points, but first I'll summon Alexandrite Dragon [2500/100]. Rabidragon, attack Jinzo! Blast him to the Graveyard, never to return on the field!"

"I don't think so, reveal face down card!" Joey yelled and Valon's face down card flipped up. "Negate Attack. It negates your attack and end your Battle Phase. My Jinzo is safe!"

"For now… I'll end my turn…" Strickland growled. 'That Valon is using his second Deck… I thought he would use his Deck containing his armor cards, this isn't going well… I should have destroyed that Jinzo.'

"A'right, I will reveal a card Wheelah set some time ago. It's tha handy Polymerization card. Now I will fuse my Fox Fire with Wheelah's Jinzo."

"Oh no, not…"

"Give a warm welcome to: Blaze Fenix, tha Burning Bombardemen' Bird (2800/2300)! Since Jinzo is no more, I will play a Trap Card face down an' summon Tenkabito Shien (1500/1000) in Attack Mode."

"Don't think you scare me with one card. Rabidragon, attack Blaze Fenix and wipe him out!"

"No way, I activate Gravity Bind! Level 4 or higher monstahs can't attack now!"

'I see what you're trying to do, but you won't succeed in the end, Valon.' Strickland thought. "Oh well, I'll guess I end my turn now."

"What now Valon?" Joey whispered. "We can't attack either."

"Don't ya worry Wheelah, we can use Blaze Fenix's Special Ability."

"Oh yeah," Joey chuckled, he hadn't thought about Blaze Fenix's awesome ability. "I'll activate Blaze Fenix's Special Ability!"

'Oh bugger…'

"We can deal three hundred points of damage to your Life Points for each card on the field. Now let's count them: Blaze Fenix, Tenkabito Shien, Gravity Bind and my face down card. Four cards on our side, now let's see yours: Rabidragon, Alexandrite Dragon, your two face down cards and the Seal of Orichalcos. That makes nine in total."

"It's good to see you can count Wheeler…"

"So… nine times three hundred makes…" Joey tried to do the math, but failed miserably.

"Twenty-seven 'undred Wheelah." Valon whispered, seeing Joey struggle with the math.

"Say goodbye to 2700 of your Life Points Shorty!" Joey yelled triumphantly. "It's all I can do for now, so take your turn."

**Strickland: 5300**

**Joey&Valon: 6250**

"Gladly, first I'll activate the Magic Card, cost down. It reduces the level of all the monsters I have in my hand by two. Now I'm able to summon Dragon Ice in Attack Mode [2300/2200]. It was a level five monster, but due to my Cost Down card it is a level three monster now."

"That means he can attack us!"

"Indeed, now Dragon Ice, attack Tenkabito Shien! It seems you lose another eight hundred Life Points!"

"That's a'right, 'cuz ya're gonna lose much more. First I'll play Card of Sanctity, now we all draw until we all have six cards in our hands. I'll throw a face down and then activate Blaze Fenix's Special Ability, this means you lose 3000 Life Points."

Strickland's Life Points dropped down to 2300.

"I think that's enough punishmen' fo' now, I end my turn." Valon said. 'Next turn Wheelah can finish this by playin' one more card and activatin' Blaze's Special Ability.'

**Strickland: 2300**

**Joey&Valon: 5450**

"I think you're thinking about me being defeated next turn because of your monster's Special ability. Let me tell you one thing, you thought wrong. I'll start of by activating this handy Magic Card called Mystical Space Typhoon. I think I will target your Gravity Bind, now the way is open to attack you!" Strickland exclaimed when Gravity Bind was destroyed. "Rabidragon, attack their Blaze Fenix directly!"

"I activate my trap, Book of Moon! It switches yer monstah into Defense Mode."

Strickland snorted, "Don't think you'll win this turn, because I have two more cards to play. I play Emergency Provisions and I discard one card to my Graveyard; I gain a thousand Life Points. Then I'll play one of my face down cards, Rain of Mercy. We both gain a thousand Life Points."

**Strickland: 4300**

**Joey&Valon: 6450**

'Ah man… he bailed himself out this time, but no worries now, we can take him.' Joey thought. "A'right, I'll summon Battle Warrior in Defense Mode. Now I think your army of monsters has grown to big, so I think I'll wipe out your Alexandrite Dragon. Blaze Fenix, attack his Alexandrite Dragon!" Joey yelled as Blaze Fenix incinerated the dragon. "Your dragon is finished. I'll play one card face down and end my turn."

"Oh well, time to say goodbye to your Blaze Fenix. I switch my Rabidragon back into Attack Mode, now attack his pathetic excuse for a monster!"

"Reveal face down card! Skull Dice!"

"No! I should have expected that one! Now you can divide my monster's attack by the amount you roll."

'Come on dice, give me a two… or higher.' Joey thought as the red die slowly rolled over the field. It landed on a three. "Aw yeah, a three! Now your monster's Attack Points get divided by three."

Rabidragon [1150/2900] continued his charge at Blaze Fenix.

"Blaze Fenix, show what you're made off and attack Rabidragon!"

"Not my dragon!"

Rabidragon was destroyed, but Strickland Life Points didn't drop.

"What! Why are our Life Points dropping?" Joey yelled in shock.

"Because I played Spell of Pain, it redirects the damage to your Life Points!" Strickland laughed. "As I said, I'm prepared for everything!"

**Strickland: 4000**

**Joey&Valon: 4800**

"Well gentlemen, it seems I'm catching up again. I'm not finished though, I will sacrifice my Dragon Ice to summon: Strong Wind Dragon (2400/1000)! Now you might wonder why I chose this monster, it's really simple. Whenever he is summoned by sacrificing a Dragon-type monster he gains half the Attack Points of the sacrificed monster and the Orichalcos comes on top of it!"

"That means ya gain sixteen 'undred fifty points!"

"You destroy one powerful monster and I give you another one in its place and to show you his power I shall attack your Battle Warrior. You see, Strong Wind Dragon has another Special Ability. When it attacks a monster in Defense Mode with a lower Defense Power, the difference is inflicted as damage to your Life Points."

"So that is… four thousand and fifty Attack Points, minus a thousand Defense Po… Three thousand and fifty!"

"You're making progress with your math I see… Strong Wind Dragon, attack Battle Warrior and subtract a rough three thousand from their Life Points!" The blue muscled dragon unleashed its attack on Battle Warrior, who got shattered to pieces. "It seems I've taken the lead."

"Enjoy while you still can Shorty, because it's my turn. I play Swordsman of Landstar (500/1200) in Attack Mode!" Joey's trusted little warrior was ready to attack. "I'll activate Blaze Fenix's Special Ability and damage your Life Points and that's all for now." Joey said as Blaze Fenix bombarded Stricklands Life Points. "We are leading again."

**Strickland: 1300**

**Joey&Valon: 1750**

"I truly enjoyed this Duel gentlemen, but all good things come to an end eventually. I'll start by playing Pot of Greed, I will now draw two more cards." Strickland said as he drew two more cards. 'Perfect, next turn they will be finished.' "To make sure your Blaze Fenix won't take the rest of my Life Points I will play the card Grief Tablet and I will equip you Blaze Fenix with it. His Special Ability is now negated and he can't attack or change between Attack and Defense Mode. Last but not least I will attack your puny Swordsman of Landstar. As far as I know that will bring your Life Points down to zero, so attack my Strong Wind Dragon!"

"Reveal face down card, Graceful Dice!"

"So you want to decrease the damage you take?" Strickland asked.

"Yeah, so what?"

"Pathetic…"

'Come on dice, show me a six… for Tristan's sake.' Joey thought. Tristan's soul was on the line and Joey wanted to save his friend from his soul being taken by a random madman. 'I will beat this guy and then I'm going to bring you to that oasis Tristan.' The die rolled and seemed to land on a five, but it still wobbled a bit and finally landed on the number Joey had hoped for. "Aw yeah, a six! That means we only take one thousand and fifty points of damage!"

"Damage is damage, isn't it?" Strickland growled. 'Lucky again Wheeler, but it's no problem, I still have one strategy to beat you. Besides, your Blaze Fenix can't use his Special Ability so I should make it through the next round.'

"What now Wheelah?" Valon asked. "We can't use our monstah and I don't have any useful cards either."

"That's no problem, there's no way Shorty can win in one more turn so you can pass this time. I think I've got just the card to take care of our problem." Joey said with a smug grin. 'Hang in there Tristan, this'll be over soon.'

"I've got ta pass."

**Strickland: 1300**

**Joey&Valon: 700**

"How careless… Oh well… I don't really care, it would've been over anyway. I've won and you won't be able to do anything about it!"

"Oh yeah, we'll see about that!" Joey yelled at Strickland, raising his fist in order to scare the older man.

"Your knuckles look very interesting Joseph, but I need to focus on other things such as the three card combo I'll have to play in order to win."

"Wha' do ya mean?" Valon asked anxiously. He took Strickland very serious, unlike Joey.

"I shall tell you why you two lost!"

Valon's thoughts drifted off as soon as Strickland started his triumphant speech about how he tricked Joey and him. His eyes drifted towards the oasis, to that shadowy place with a source of fresh water and probably something to eat. It looked so tranquil and beautiful, but something wasn't right about it. Something disturbed Valon as he watched the scene from afar. He felt two eyes peering at him, but he didn't know where they came from or to whom they belonged. He began to search the horizon frantically, but he only saw sand, apart from the oasis. Suddenly he saw someone sitting at the top of a palm tree, he was looking straight into Valon's eyes. Valon flinched a bit when he saw the person, but he regained posture and narrowed his eyes to inspect the person more closely. He blinked once, but that was enough for that person to disappear. He was shocked back into reality when Strickland raised his voice.

"I'll start by playing Giant Trunade, all Magic and Trap Cards return to their owners hands!"

"Doesn't that remove your Grief Tablet also?"

"Yes, but that's fine because I don't need it anymore."

"Wheelah, I think he's serious about endin' tha Duel." Valon said uneasily. "I think we're in trouble."

"Next I will play Monster Reincarnation. I'll send my Grief Tablet to the Graveyard so I can place Rabidragon back in my hand. It doesn't end there though…" Strickland smirked, he loved keeping people in suspense, or didn't he… He couldn't explain why, but for some reason he felt completely empty, null.

"I don't like where this 's goin'…" Valon said. His was mouth twitching a bit.

"Last card of my three card combo, Double Attack."

"Uh oh, this is bad!" Joey exclaimed.

"By discarding a monster I can allow my monster to attack twice, but the monster I discard has to by a higher level than my monster on the field. That is why I needed my Monster Reincarnation, because I had a high level monster in my Graveyard. Didn't you send him there Joseph?" Strickland asked. He didn't give Joey time to answer, but continued to explain his strategy. "You see, my Strong Wind Dragon is a Level Six monster and my Rabidragon is a Level Eight monster, so if I discard my Rabidragon I can attack twice with my Strong Wind Dragon. It is over!" Strickland yelled as he slid Rabidragon back into the Graveyard.

"I've nevah seen somethin' like this..." Valon said in awe. "He brought his monstah back from tha grave ta send him back…"

"Yeah… he was playing with us the whole time and we thought we still had a chance…" Joey said. 'I'm sorry Tristan… we tried our best…'

"Wait a minute… why did ya had ta use Double Attack? You will win with one attack…" Valon asked confused by Stricklands strategy.

"I can't win while having under two thousand Life Points…" he said indignantly. "It's good that your remind me of this. I will play another Rain of Mercy card. I now have over two thousand Life Points and I get to attack you twice; that means more fun for me!"

**Strickland: 2300**

**Joey&Valon: 1700**

"Is it me or is this guy a sick bastard?" Joey asked.

"He wants ta see us suffah, because we're within tha Seal we will feel the blow he's about ta deal like its real…"

"Oh yeah… forgot about that…"

"Strong Wind Dragon [4050/1000] attack their Blaze Fenix the Burning Bombardment Bird, extinguish its flames!" Strickland yelled as Strong Wind Dragon dealt the killing blow at Blaze Fenix.

The blow left Joey and Valon barely standing at their feet.

Strickland laughed like a psychopath killer who was committing mass-murder for fun's sake. "Now attack their Life Points directly!" he yelled. "Now to insert a pun… Seal their fate!" he sniggered, "Gee, I'm funny."

The second blow threw Joey and Valon against the Seal's magical barrier. The collapsed on the hot sand beneath them as the Seal now slowly encircled Tristan. Tristan didn't notice anything, he still was unconscious.

'I'm sorry Tristan…'

Strickland was gone and so was Tristan's soul.

* * *

_Beth Dabney: Section 1, 0 Duels played._

_Téa Gardner: Section 1, 1 Duel played, 1 victory, 0 losses._

_Ishizu Ishtar: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

_Mokuba Kaiba: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Seto Kaiba: Section 2, 0 Duels Played._

_Yugi Muto: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Johann Neumann: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

_Miho Nosaka: Section 1, 0 Duels played._

_Maximillion Pegasus: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Nicolas 'Pegasus': Section 2, 1 Duel played, 1 victory, 0 losses._

_Valon Sava: Section 1, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss._

_Valentin Séverin: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

_Tristan Taylor: Section X, 0 Duels played, eliminated._

_Joseph Wheeler: Section 1, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss._

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'That's number four…'

* * *

'Nice work Strickland, you're much more useful as a mindless slave than an employee and your Duels are much more fun to watch when you're so… malevolent. Your such a… trickster… you deluding deceiver. My plan is working so well… I feel my power growing and I'm having so much fun. Now it's bedtime, but I don't think my eliminators' next victims won't have that much time to sleep.' Stanford thought as he stood up from behind his desk. 'Strickland… I think I know who your next victim will be. Oh… the pain he will feel… I'm such a genius.'

* * *

**How I loved to write this chapter even though the duel was hard.**

**One thing I wanted to point out concerning Valon's last name. I could of course have picked a standard Ozzy last name, but I didn't like that idea. Valon is an Albanian name, so I gave Valon an Albanian last name. I guess that makes Valon someone from Australia with an Albanian family history, or someone from Albania who likes to speak with a (very heavy) Australian accent.**

**Aid me by donating one review for this chapter please! A lot of innocent souls will be spared that way. *crosses fingers behind his back***


	20. Chapter 19

**I've written a chapter again that doesn't feature a duel... Wow, it feels strange. There is a little bit of violence in this chapter -if you can call it violence-, but for those who totally disgust it this can be taken as a warning. **

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh**

* * *

Chapter 19:

* * *

The stars' faint light reflected in the swampy water, making the swamp look like a magical place. A small campfire held two girls warm and kept them safe from any danger lurking within the shallow muddy water. A woman sat a few yards away on a large rock, which slightly hung over the water. She said with her back facing the small fire, the light casting a faint shadow in front of her. She was plunged into thought, she had been like that for a long time. Her friends slept, but she couldn't. It's not because she wasn't tired, she was exhausted, but there was too much on her mind. She was thinking about a someone, someone that cared so much for her, someone she had betrayed. She thought she needed a lot of time to think, but the more she thought, the more guilt she started to feel. She now knew that she didn't need to think, she need just one thing: his forgiveness. How could she have been so selfish to walk away when she needed to face him directly, to apologize and… to tell him how she felt about him. He probably knows that already, or doesn't he? He isn't really known for his wits… She chuckled softly when she thought about it, but she saddened soon after. He had done so much for her, he had helped her multiple times and how did she repay him? By stabbing him in his back. She felt her eyes getting heavy and she laid herself down on the rock. Within mere seconds she was asleep.

* * *

"Where am I?" Mai thought out loud as she woke up in an empty corridor. She slowly stood up and shook her head a little. She started to walk down the corridor and noticed many doors. She opened one and stepped in. She wasn't alone, a person was standing at the back of the room, someone she knew very well. It felt like a chunk of cork was blocking her breath and her ability to speak as she felt a large lump in her throat. She stood there, paralyzed, not knowing what to do. She just stared at him, she tried to walk over to him to see if it was really him, but something withheld her from doing that. Finally after a few minutes of complete silence she was able to say something. Her voice sounded hoarse and shaky.

"J-joey?"

He responded by nodding, but he stood, like her, nailed to the ground.

"Mai…" he said curtly, like a greeting of some sort. He sounded indifferent if not angry.

'He's still mad at me,' Mai thought, 'I knew it.' She now tried to walk over to him again and this time she, slowly, stepped towards him. Within an arm's reach she stopped and tried to look at his face, but she couldn't see a thing as it was too dark. How she'd ever recognized him, she didn't know. She tried to reach out for him, but he grabbed her arm before she could even come near him. He grabbed her violently, Mai felt her arm hurting as he grabbed her. Then he pushed her away, resulting in her falling on the ground.

She didn't know if it was because of the shock, pain or because of Joey being the person who hurt her, but she couldn't withhold her tears. She cried as she looked Joey in the eyes with a pleading look, one filled with regret, hurt and sorrow. Joey now stood in front of her with a raised arm. Mai closed her eyes as Joey hit her in her face. Tears welled from her eyes as she felt the pain, inflicted by the person who she cared for so much. When she opened her eyes, Joey was gone and she was sitting in the corridor she woke up in. She curled up in the corner, wanting to forget everything she went through. There she sat, crying for who knows how long, until someone patted her on the shoulder. She looked up and saw another familiar face, Valon's.

"C'me on Mai, it's not that bad. You've done worse thin's ta 'im." he said with a disapproving, disparaging look in his eyes. "I mean… ya tried ta take 'is soul. Ya should be ashamed of yerself. Ya don't deserve ta be happy, ya deserve ta be miserable yer entire life."

Mai wished him to go away, to leave her alone. She felt miserable already and he was making her feel worse. Why would Valon do such thing? Why would Joey hit her? She didn't know what felt worse; Joey hitting her or Valon saying these things. Or was it because these were the two people who she loved the most of all people she knew? Valon's voice faded.

Mai wanted to get out of the horrid corridor she was sitting in, so she stood up and ran. As she ran she started to hear voices, mostly Joey's and Valon's voices.

"You betrayed us Mai!"

"Ya hurt us!"

"We'll never forgive you!"

She ran faster, wanting to outrun the voices that kept haunting her.

"The Shadow Realm is waiting for you Mai!"

She froze as she heard that voice. The voice she feared the most: Marik's voice. She quickly turned around the corner and gazed upon a gigantic yellow eye on the wall. It was the same eye Marik had on his head when she dueled him. She turned around and wanted to run from her fear, but she bumped in to someone and fell on the ground.

"Hello miss Valentine!" Marik's dark side said. He still looked like the utterly evil and sadistic maniac he always was. He cackled in response to seeing Mai's terrified face. "Have you missed me?" he asked as he pointed his Millennium Rod at her. "The Shadow Realm sure did!"

Next thing Mai saw was the inside of the awful triangle slowly filling with sand again. Things only got worse as she saw herself getting hit by Joey over and over again and she heard Valon reprimanding her over and over again.

"Stop it!" she begged, looking at 'Marik' again. This time Marik wasn't sitting next to her, but it was someone she despised even more.

"Why would I miss Valentine? Can't you handle being judged by the Orichalcos?"

"Dartz?" she exclaimed in fear. She mightn't have seen him demonstrating his power, but she knew enough to fear him.

"You're evil miss Valentine, so evil will bestowed upon you."

She felt like going completely insane, the triangle was starting to shrink and was now pressing her together. The sand mixed with her wet eyes, it was clogging her mouth. All she wanted to be now was dead.

* * *

She woke up again, this time in a luxurious chamber on a comfy chair.

"Did you approve your travels miss Valentine?" a graying man, sitting in front of a desk, asked. "Don't answer that, I know it must have been horrible. Well, I shall tell you one thing. What happened to your mere moments ago is nothing compared to the nightmare you got yourself into right now. I promise you miss Valentine, I'm much more malevolent than any of those who you saw before and I don't give a… excrement." he said with a broad vicious grin. "Don't think you'll ever going to get out of here, because before that happens I have to be quite…"

* * *

Mai woke up under the sound of a loud scream. She instantly recognized it to be Vivian's. She quickly stood up, a bit drowsily and turned around to see a bright green light consuming Vivian Wong.

"I don't want to die…!" she screamed as the light beamed up into the sky. Her soulless body collapsed on the wet ground of the swamp. A young boy stood in front of her, laughing like a madman.

"T-that can't be…" Mai stuttered.

Rebecca noticed Mai and quickly ran over to her.

"That creep challenged Viv to a Duel and he won!" she yelled while pointing at the small boy.

The boy looked much like a zombie. His skin was ultra-pale and it was smudged with filth from the swamp. His clothes were torn, drenched and sallow. His eyes were grey and he had black rings around them. His hair was as black as the night and as filthy as his entire body. His laugh was creepy to say the least, he sounded hoarse but much like a child, twelve at most.

"Who are you?" Mai asked demandingly.

"I'm Jason Brown, welcome to the nightmare miss Valentine!" he yelled as he ran into the swamp.

Mai felt like she was going to faint as she heard what the little boy said. She must have dreamt all the things that happened to her before, but it did have a lot of impact on her. She understood why she'd seen Dartz, the Orichalcos had been played.

"Dartz must be behind all this!" she growled.

"I thought so too Mai, but the kid denied everything. He said Dartz is gone."

"He must be behind this! I saw him Rebecca!"

Rebecca looked her into her eyes, she was filled with concern for the elder woman.

"Are you alright Mai?" she asked.

"Yes… I think so, but Viv sure isn't." Mai said as she lifted Vivian in her arms.

"What are we going to do now?" Rebecca asked. "I came here for a tournament, not for another wacko to show up and start destroying people's lives."

"I honestly don't know Rebecca."

Suddenly the sky turned from dark blue to a bright white light.

"What is happening?" Rebecca screamed anxiously.

Before Mai could answer she lost consciousness.

* * *

"W-where am I?" Rebecca asked. She was lying down on a red soft carpet and when she looked up she looked into a familiar kid's face. "M-mokuba?" she asked surprised.

"Hey Rebecca!" he said cheerfully.

It was a warm colorful room and a nice smell came from a neighboring room.

"I bet you're hungry," Mokuba said, "come with me to the kitchen. You can get something to eat there."

Rebecca wanted to make a wisecracking remark, but she decided against it. She wasn't in the mood for it anyway. She slowly stood up and followed Mokuba into the kitchen. A table was filled with all kinds of delicacies, both healthy and unhealthy ones. She felt her stomach rumble and decided not to wait any longer. She lunged towards the table and started eating. She looked up at Mokuba who was chuckling, he thought she behaved funny. She didn't care, she was hungry and she hadn't eaten since she got trapped in this world, whatever it may be.

"Is it tasty?" Mokuba asked with a chuckle, pointing at his own cheek to let Rebecca know that she spilled something. Rebecca only nodded and continued eating after swiping her cheek clean.

When she finished eating, Mokuba asked her what had happened to her this day. Rebecca told him about the swamp and about Vivian's Duel. How she lost and how her soul got taken by the Orichalcos.

"Something similar happened to me…" he said.

"Who were you with?"

"I was with Yugi and Nicolas when a freaky French-guy challenged us. Nicolas defeated him, with ease, and then the French-guy's soul was taken. Now I'm here."

"I wonder how the others are doing…" Rebecca mumbled.

"Yeah, I want to know what happened to my brother. I went with him to this tournament, but I haven't seen him since we got here."

The two kids chatted for some time when suddenly the room was filled in white light again and another friend dropped into the room.

"Leon!"

* * *

Mai woke up on a boat, floating in a large lake. She looked around, everything was still dark around her, but in the far distance she could see the silhouettes of high mountain peaks and dense forests. She cupped her hands together and drank some water from the lake. It was surprisingly refreshing. She felt unbelievably tired and laid herself down to get some sleep. She noticed that Rebecca and Vivian were gone, but she was too tired to think. A large white circle appeared above her and two small bodies fell down on her.

* * *

_Beth Dabney: Section 1, 0 Duels played._

_Téa Gardner: Section 1, 1 Duel played, 1 victory, 0 losses._

_Rebecca Hawkins, Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Ishizu Ishtar: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

_Mokuba Kaiba: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Seto Kaiba: Section 2, 0 Duels Played._

_Yugi Muto: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Johann Neumann: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

_Miho Nosaka: Section 1, 0 Duels played._

_Maximillion Pegasus: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Nicolas 'Pegasus': Section 2, 1 Duel played, 1 victory, 0 losses._

_Valon Sava: Section 1, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss._

_Leon von Schroeder: Section 2, 1 Duel played, 1 victory, 0 losses._

_Valentin Séverin: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

_Tristan Taylor: Section X, 0 Duels played, eliminated._

_Mai Valentine: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Joseph Wheeler: Section 1, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss._

_Vivian Wong: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

* * *

'The weak ones are the first to fall, no?'

* * *

**As I said, no duels although two duels did happen. Also, a wild Leon has appeared, now the three kids are together.**

**Who were the two persons falling down on Mai?**

**Did Mai dream everything?**

**Did Yami Marik get a haircut?**

**These are all important questions that will be answered soon.**

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I felt like doing something different this chapter and I hope it worked out well. So please review this chapter, I really want to know how I did.**


	21. Chapter 20

**It is time to take things up a notch! It is time for the second level! Another duel in this chapter. **

**A guest reviewer asked me if Yugi is going to duel soon. I can say that he will duel within four/five chapters. I also had two guests who asked me a long time ago if Atem was going to reappear. I won't be answering that question, if I was planning to it would be a big spoiler and if I wasn't it would be a dissapointement for some readers. I won't deny anything, but I won't agree to anything either. If the story comes to the point that Atem reappearing would be a good thing to do, he will make an appearance...  
I hope this clarifies some things for you readers, because I got confused writing the statement above. It's supposed to be a neutral answer, no yes and no no.**

**Now that's been clarified, it's time for my most favorite part of the A/N, saying that I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, although that is very obvious since I'm posting my story on FanFiction instead of publishing it... it wouldn't be a fanfic if I owned Yu-Gi-Oh... **

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh**

* * *

Chapter 20:

* * *

The earliest of sunbeams shone into a gigantic bedroom. The quinquagenarian residing in the room smiled in satisfaction as he greeted the new day.

'Day two,' he thought, 'that means it's time for phase two.'

He put on a scarlet robe and made his way to the door. He stepped into his office where Clifford was waiting for him.

"Clifford! It's good to see you, I trust your Duel went well?"

"Yes Mr. Stanford, I beat him with utmost ease." Clifford answered.

Stanford considered Clifford to be the most loyal and productive employee. Clifford was a broad man, he had brown hair and black glasses framed his green eyes. Clifford had taken out one of the tougher Duelists, only Strickland would be able to beat Clifford. Stanford knew exactly how to use Clifford and exploit him and Clifford doesn't even object.

"Did something important happen this night Clifford?"

"I beat my opponent in group six, Vivian Wong was defeated in group five, Strickland wasn't able to find anyone of group seven, Leon von Schroeder was the only winner in group eight and group nine to twelve are out." Clifford answered almost robotically.

"Perfect, that means we are set for phase two!"

"Phase two sir?"

"Yes, we will mix the groups again, but now we'll only have six groups instead of twelve, since we are down eighteen people already."

"Is this the world-stages-plan of yours sir?" Clifford asked, trying to get some elucidation.

"I'll explain it once more for you Clifford. This magical world is divided in certain levels, it's much like a game world. Once a Duel is won you can advance to the next level. This will only be possible once a phase is completed and I decide when that is."

"Yeah, that's what you said last time, but I have some questions."

"Spill it Clifford."

"First of all, how many levels are there?"

"Seven levels and thus seven phases. The seventh phase will be the final phase, it's where I will be waiting once phase six commences."

"So you will be like… the end-boss?"

"Yes… you could say that."

"So why are there so many groups sir?"

"As I said before, divide and conquer. Don't underestimate the power of friendship Clifford."

"My final question sir. Why not just shoot everyone?"

"Excuse me Clifford," Stanford said chuckling, "I'm afraid I don't understand you. Did you ask me to commit unnecessary violence? You know I hate unnecessary violence and besides, what's the fun in shooting people? I like to play with my victims and this plan of mine doesn't revolve around taking care of my rivals, but it revolves on gaining a lot of power!"

"Forget I asked sir." Clifford said.

"Great, because Clifford, you are going to take care of group… wait can't say that yet, first we must mix the groups again!" Stanford said as he walked towards a computer. He opened a document featuring twelve groups. "Now we take out the persons who're in section X… let's see…"

_Group 1: Muto, Yugi; Kaiba, Mokuba; Pegasus, Nicolas_

_Group 2: Kaiba, Seto; Pegasus, Maximillion_

_Group 3: Dabney, Beth; Gardner, Téa; Nosaka, Miho_

_Group 4: Sava, Valon; Wheeler, Joey_

_Group 5: Hawkins, Rebecca; Valentine, Mai_

_Group 6: Bakura, Ryou; Ishtar, Marik_

_Group 7: Schroeder, Leon von_

"Now let's tick the random button and then make some minor changes…"

"Sir, I think something is wrong." Clifford said as he took a look at Stanford's surveillance screens.

"What is it Clifford?"

"On some screens it's the middle of the day and on another it's in the middle of the night."

"So? Time isn't relevant in my world Clifford. I'm the only relevant thing!" Stanford exclaimed. "Now let's see… you go to this group and you go there… perfect!" He tapped Clifford on his back. "Look Clifford, you will be going after group two and you will challenge this person. Now phase two has started! Look at those white circles Clifford, they will transport our competitors to who knows where. Wait… I know where they're going since I created this world. Now go Clifford and bring me a soul!"

* * *

"Let's go girls, it's time to get out of this stupid mall!" Téa said.

"Miho never thought she would ever hate a mall…"

"Did you two sleep well tonight?" Beth asked cheerfully. She was in a very good mood today.

"Yeah, better than I expected too." Téa said. Miho only nodded.

They stepped into the elevator, the one that Johann kindly opened for them, before trying to take Téa's soul.

"Huh… this is weird. It has no buttons." Téa said when suddenly the doors of the elevator closed and the elevator started to go up. A voice sounded from a speaker.

"Congratulations, you're the Duelists who've made it to phase two of the wonderful tournament!"

"Is this guy sick or something?" Beth asked disgusted. "I think he's really enjoying himself."

"I just want to get out of here and have nothing to do with that creep." Téa said.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened. The three girls stepped outside and were now on a large roof; the mall's roof.

"Now what?" Téa asked. "This roof has no exits as well and it's like two hundred feet down from here." she said as she looked over the edge.

"We'll probably have to wait for another eliminator…" Beth said.

"Hello? Is someone there?" they heard someone asked. They recognized his voice instantly.

"Marik? Is that you?" they asked in unison.

"Yeah," Marik said as he showed up from behind a small house on top of the roof.

"How long have you been here Marik?" Téa asked.

"I don't know, all I know is that I was in a jungle with Bakura and some freaky guy with pink hair named Zigfried. Then a wacko shows up and he happened to be a great Duelist so he beat Zigfried in a Duel and then something took his soul!"

"Who's Zigfried?" Beth asked.

"That's not important right now Beth, we need to get out of here and…" Téa was interrupted by Marik before she could finish saying what she wanted to say.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but we're stuck here." he said.

"We could take the elevator into the mall again…" Miho said suggestively.

"What elevator, there's no elevator here." Marik said.

"There is! Look the… Where did it go!"

"It disappeared…" Téa mumbled. "Strange…"

"I'm bored to death!" Marik exclaimed. "There's absolutely nothing to do here."

"We're on a roof Marik, of course there is nothing to do here…"

"I know something, we could play a game. Let's play Rock-paper-scissors!"

Miho immediately put forward her hand, suggesting she wanted to play.

"Alright Miho, prepare to be defeated by me!" Marik exclaimed dramatically.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" Marik and Miho said in unison.

"What? No? You can't have beaten me, I'm too good at this game. Two out of three!" he quickly added.

"Okay…" Miho said, "but if Miho wins again, she won't do another round."

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" Miho won again.

"Oh come on!" Marik yelled angrily.

"Well, well, look at that… What a touchy scene." a short man said.

The three girls and Marik were shocked by the sudden appearance of the man.

"Another eliminator I think…" Beth whispered to no one in general.

"You can call me Mr. Strickland girls…"

"Hey! I'm a boy!" Marik yelled indignantly.

"I know, but I don't care. You just lost a game and you want to know what that means?" Strickland said with an evil grin. "Whenever someone loses a game, that person loses his soul!"

"What? But that isn't fair, it was just a friendly game!"

"A friendly game with a high price to pay!" Strickland sniggered. "Mr. Ishtar, you got eliminated by my next opponent. Thank you for saving some work miss Nosaka."

"No! Stop this!" Marik yelled as a green circle suddenly appeared around him. The Seal of Orichalcos took his soul under his loud screams. The green light beamed into the sky and made it go dark and stormy.

Téa, Miho and Beth stood nailed to the ground after what they heard Strickland say. Miho suddenly burst out into tears, realizing she'd just 'killed' a friend.

"You'd make a great eliminator miss Nosaka, if it weren't so… useless. Brace yourself little girl, because the inner pain you're feeling right now is nothing compared to the pain you're going to feel very soon in our Duel."

"But Miho doesn't know how to duel…" she sobbed.

"That's alright little girl, because you don't stand a chance anyway. I already defeated Mr. Wheeler and took your boyfriends soul!"

"He defeated Joey?" Téa yelled.

"And he took Tristan's soul…" Beth quietly added.

Miho was completely destructed when she heard Tristan's soul got taken, but she stood up and activated her Duel Disk. "Miho will take revenge for Tristan!" she said between two sobs.

"You show him something Miho!" Téa yelled encouragingly.

"Let's duel miss Nosaka!"

**Strickland: 4000**

**Miho: 4000**

"I'll start of easy by summoning Blizzard Dragon (1800/1000) in attack mode and by placing one card face down."

"Uh… Okay… Miho summons… this card in Defense Mode?"

"Pfew, she summoned it correctly…" Téa said, swiping her hand across her forehead in relief. "Good job Miho!"

"Is that all?" Strickland asked.

"Miho places one card face down."

"Alright then, first I'll discard this card to the Graveyard so I can use my face down card, Double Attack. Because I've discarded a high level Monster Card I can attack twice with my Blizzard Dragon, so I will take at least 1800 of your Life Points. Go Blizzard Dragon!"

"Now Miho can activate her Sakuretsu Armor Trap Card, right?"

"What?"

"It says it destroys your monster." Miho said cheerfully, regaining some confidence.

"Alright Miho, you stopped his Double Attack and now he wasted his monster for nothing!" Téa yelled. Beth stood next to her, but kept quiet.

"I summon Decoy Dragon (300/200) in Defense Mode and end my turn."

'Don't get excited now Miho, you haven't won yet…' Miho thought. "Miho changes her monster into Attack Mode, Kurama (800/800)! Miho also summons Hunter Owl (1000/900) in Attack Mode. It says Hunter Owl gains 500 Attack Points for each Wind Monster on the field so Hunter Owl receives 500 Attack Points. Hunter Owl, attack his Decoy Dragon!" Miho exclaimed lively.

"Stupid little girl… you've activated my Decoy Dragon's Special Ability."

"Miho is in trouble now…" Beth said as she discovered Strickland's strategy.

"What's wrong Beth?" Téa asked.

"You'll see."

"Decoy Dragon's Special Ability allows me to summon a monster from my Graveyard to the field. I will choose the monster I discarded to play my Double Attack Magic Card. Give a warm welcome to… Rabidragon (2950/2900)!"

"That is one big bunny-dragon…" Beth muttered.

"That's not all miss Nosaka, your attack is changed towards Rabidragon." Strickland laughed when he saw Miho's upset face. "Rabidragon, counterattack and destroy Hunter Owl!" Rabidragon prepared to attack. "This is the beginning of the end for you miss Nosaka!"

"Poor Miho… she doesn't stand a chance…" Beth mumbled.

"Don't say that Beth, I'm sure Miho can win."

"Get real Téa, Miho doesn't know how to play the game and that guy had a strategy from the beginning. Just face it, Miho can't win this."

"I end my turn…" Miho chirped quietly.

"This is what I mean Téa. She left a weak monster open for an attack. This is going to cost her a lot of Life Points."

**Strickland: 4000**

**Miho: 2550**

"I can end it right now!" Strickland yelled.

"No he can't… Not with only this monster…" Téa muttered. "Unless…"

"I play the Seal of Orichalcos, which will raise my monsters' Attack Points by five hundred, but I don't like to end it with only a difference of one hundred points. You won't feel any pain if I defeat you like that…" Strickland said while the Seal of Orichalcos surrounded him and Miho. "First I will play Pot of Greed, hoping to draw the card I want." He drew his two cards, but looked disappointed. "I didn't draw it, but that doesn't matter, because I will play Graceful Charity. This allows me to draw three cards, as long as I discard two." He drew another three cards. "Bingo."

"This can't be good…" Miho whispered to herself. She realized she would lose whatever was going to happen and the suspense only made her feel worse.

"I will now play the card that destroyed my last two opponents! I sacrifice my Rabidragon to summon a lower level monster. A very rare Dragon Monster…" he said slowly as he saw how miserable Miho felt. He enjoyed every bit of it, probably because he was thinking like his boss now. "I summon Strong Wind Dragon (2400/1000)!"

"Well, that's not so bad…" Téa said.

"Well think again!" Strickland yelled as he heard what Téa said. "This monster has a nice Special Ability. When the sacrificed monster was a dragon, this monster gains half its Attack Points!"

"Oh my…" Beth mumbled. "Rabidragon had 3450 when sacrificed, so his monster gains 1725 Attack Points…"

"…and another five hundred because of the Orichalcos." Téa added.

"Indeed, that means it has a grand total of 4625 Attack Points!" Strickland exclaimed with a broad grin. "Miho, dear… this is going to hurt… a lot."

His laugh sounded in Miho's head as the unbelievably strong dragon attacked her weak monster, which still was in Attack Mode. When her monster got destroyed, the shockwave slammed her against the barrier of the Seal with an unimaginable force. It felt like every bone in her body was broken and she couldn't find the strength to stand up. Her Life Points dropped to zero.

"Farewell miss Nosaka. It has been a… blast!" Strickland cackled. "Man… I should really stop making these good jokes…"

"Miho, no!" Téa yelled as she ran towards Miho, while the Seal was closing in on her. She couldn't let go of her best friend.

"Tsk, you're too late miss Gardner… but don't worry. You'll follow her… eventually." Strickland said as he slowly started to disappear.

"Oh no you don't!" Beth yelled as she lunged at Strickland, grabbing him by his right shoulder. She disappeared with him.

Miho disappeared too as the Seal took her soul, leaving Téa completely alone on the high rooftop above looking over an unknown city. Even Marik's body was nowhere to be found.

* * *

_Beth Dabney: Section 0, 0 Duels played._

_Téa Gardner: Section 2, 1 Duel played, 1 victory, 0 losses._

_Rebecca Hawkins, Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Ishizu Ishtar: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated. _

_Marik Ishtar: Section X, 0 Duels played, eliminated._

_Mokuba Kaiba: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Seto Kaiba: Section 2, 0 Duels Played._

_Yugi Muto: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Johann Neumann: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

_Miho Nosaka: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

_Maximillion Pegasus: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Nicolas 'Pegasus': Section 2, 1 Duel played, 1 victory, 0 losses._

_Valon Sava: Section 1, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss._

_Valentin Séverin: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

_Tristan Taylor: Section X, 0 Duels played, eliminated._

_Mai Valentine: Section 2, 0 Duels played._

_Joseph Wheeler: Section 1, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss._

_Vivian Wong: Section X, 1 Duel played, 0 victories, 1 loss, eliminated._

* * *

'Two in a row… you amaze me Strickland. Marik is the most unlucky person I've ever seen. He lost his soul in a game of Rock-paper-scissors... I mean... you don't see that happen a lot.'

* * *

"What is this for an…" Strickland growled. "Where am I!"

"Strickland!" Stanford's voice boomed through the desolate canyon. "You have a stowaway."

Strickland turned around and saw a girl standing across a chasm on a natural stone pillar. He saw he was on one as well.

"There is only one proper way of dealing with stowaways, don't you think Strickland? You two will duel, so brace yourself Dithanei!"

Beth's eyes widened as she heard her real name, spoken by this maniac.

"Ooooh… Is this the one Mr. Stanford?" Strickland asked. It was silent, but Strickland took it as a yes. "It's time to use the cards I got from Mr. Stanford and mix them into my Deck…" he mumbled as he took a few cards out of his pocket. "Are you ready to duel girl, because this will be the most unforgettable Duel you'll ever play since it will also be your last one!"

* * *

**Poor Marik... his Yami did more in this fic so far than he did... besides losing a children's game and his soul...**

**I must keep a promise to someone and answer the question about Yami Marik's haircut. He did get his hair cut, 0.2 milimeters went off o.O**

**Next chapter... Strickland vs. Beth who will henceforth be known as She who will not be named... ... Scratch that, she will henceforth be known as Dithanei for as long as no one of the gang is around.**

**Will another person lose his soul...? Yes of course, unless it's a tie. Will Dithanei lose her soul? You'll find out in the upcoming chapters.**

**Please review. *insert kitty face* :3**


	22. Chapter 21

**This chapter took a bit longer than I expected, but I've got it done. I was halfway through when I got stuck on a part, so I decided to delete everything and rewrite it and I like the result much better.**

**Contains a duel... obviously since that's where I left off.**

**Remember, Dithanei is Beth's real name. Pronounciation: Dith-ah-nay**

**Enjoy the chapter and don't forget to review!**

**DISCLAIMER: Still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, but I do own the Ancient cards in this chapter**

* * *

Chapter 21:

* * *

"Prepare to lose it all little girl!" Strickland yelled. "But before we start, I'll give you the chance to reconstruct your Deck."

'Why would he do such thing?' Dithanei thought. 'I do have a few cards I want to add to my Deck, but I didn't expect that guy to give me that chance.'

"You may wonder why I would give you that opportunity. The answer is simple: I want to add a few cards myself."

'Well, I don't mind at all! I can now add the cards Merus gave me to my deck, although I don't know why he gave them to me.'

_Flashback_

"_Here Dith," Merus said, handing me four cards. "You'll need them, they'll keep you safe. This one mostly." he said, pointing at a Magic Card._

"_The Stone of the Old Times… What does it do?"_

"_You'll find out when the time is right."_

_End of Flashback_

"Alright, let's reconstruct our Decks." Dithanei finally said.

'With the cards, Mr. Stanford gave me I simply can't lose.' Strickland thought as he added two cards to his Deck. He smirked, this would be a great Duel.

Dithanei added four cards to her Deck, smiling gently as she thought of the person who gave them to her. 'I won't disappoint you.'

"Are you done?" she suddenly heard Strickland yell from across the chasm.

"Yes, now let's duel!" she yelled back. There was quite a distance between them, she wondered why that was.

**Strickland: 4000**

**Dithanei: 4000**

"As the more experienced and older Duelist, I shall start this Duel." Strickland said.

"Fine with me."

"Alright then…" he said. 'Hmm, my hand isn't too bad. I think I can dominate this Duel from the start.' He drew a card and studied it. It took him some time as he was figuring out a strategy. '…and if all goes well, I might win this within six turns.' Strickland thought.

"Alright!" he finally yelled. "I shall start off by summoning Baby Dragon (1200/700)!" Strickland yelled as the small orange dragon spread his small wings.

'What's up with all these dragons…' Dithanei wondered.

"I'll play two cards face down and end my turn. Take your best shot, I doubt it will be worth my time."

'Oh we'll see. What was it that Merus says… Oh yeah, I remember. Always trust in your cards and you'll be unstoppable. Now come on cards!' Dithanei thought as she drew. 'Hmm, now I've three of Merus' cards in my hand, but I'd better save them for when I really need them. Let's play safe for now…' she carefully deliberated on her strategy and finally summoned a monster. "I play Ancient Spearman (800/1000) in Defense Mode and I'll play one card face down." 'Now if I know his strategy, he will play Double Attack to send his strongest monster to the Graveyard like he did in Miho's Duel.'

"Psh, you're hardly a decent Duelist missy. I'll make you regret the poor move you've made." Strickland gloated. 'She did just what I wanted her to do, whenever someone starts to play defensive against me, he or she will be utterly crushed.' "Now watch as I play this wonderful card: Double Attack!"

'I knew it!'

"I'll send one card to the Graveyard…"

'Your Rabidragon of course…'

"…and now I'm able to attack twice with my Baby Dragon!"

"Oh no, I'm so scared right now…" Dithanei said dryly.

"You should be, I will take more than a quarter of your Life Points down." Strickland retorted. 'Unless you have a Trap Card face down, but I'll take the risk.'

"Baby Dragon, attack her Ancient Spearman. Show her that the younglings beat the elderly!" Strickland yelled as Baby Dragon released a small breath of flames.

"If that's true, shouldn't I win this Duel?" Dithanei asked in response to what Strickland said. She ignored the fact that her Ancient Spearman was destroyed by Baby Dragon.

"Shut up…" Strickland said quickly after the witty remark of his opponent. 'Brat.'

"Just saying…"

"Baby Dragon, attack again! Target her Life Points!"

"I don't think so! I will redirect it!"

"And how do you plan to accomplish that?" Strickland asked. He was startled a bit by the sudden yell from his opponent.

"By activating my trap of course, Mythical Resurrection!" she yelled triumphantly.

"Let me guess… it brings one monster back from the Graveyard?"

"Not exactly, you see it only brings Ancient Monsters back from the Graveyard in Defense Mode. There is a bad side about this card. When the resurrected monster is destroyed again, it must be removed from the game." Dithanei explained.

"So my Baby Dragon will destroy your monster once again?"

"His sacrifice will not be forgotten."

"How poetic, if you were as good in dueling as you are in talking you would even have a chance of beating me." Strickland said sarcastically as his Baby Dragon destroyed Ancient Spearman once again.

"Someone is a bit grumpy because I spoiled his plan." Dithanei pouted.

"I'll summon Decoy Dragon (300/200) in Defense Mode and end my turn." Strickland growled.

'Ah, I remember this. I mustn't attack his Decoy Dragon, because he will be able to bring his Rabidragon to the field.' Dithanei thought. 'Let's hope I draw a good card now so I can at least attack his Baby Dragon. Come on, come on…' She drew, 'Perfect!' "I summon Ancient Archer (1400/1500) in Attack Mode, now attack Baby Dragon with your ancient bow!"

"I activate a Trap Card, a card that was also played in my Duel with Wheeler and Sava. Attack Guidance Barrier."

'Butter cake!' Dithanei was bashing her head against the wall, mentally of course.

"I redirect your attack to Decoy Dragon, now I can activate his Special Ability!"

'Great move Dith… not…'

"I bring Rabidragon back from the Graveyard and your attack is redirected to him!" Strickland said triumphantly as one of his strongest monsters spread his snow-like wings. "Rabidragon (2950/2900), counterattack and send that pathetic excuse for a monster to the Graveyard!"

'1550 points of damage…'

"You lose 1550 Life Points missy."

"That might be so, but by sending Ancient Archer to the Graveyard you've activated his Special Ability. You will not be able to attack during your next turn." Dithanei explained.

"So you're practically stalling?" Strickland asked.

"No!" she yelled indignantly. "I need some time to play my strategy…"

"Right…" Strickland rolled his eyes. "Is it my turn?"

"Yeah…"

**Strickland: 4000**

**Dithanei: 2450**

"Very good, since I can't attack I will play only one card. Let's see…" he said as he drew one card. "Perfect, right in time!" He raised the card in his right hand. "I play the Seal of Orichalcos!"

'This isn't good…'

"Now my all monsters will receive a five hundred Attack Points boost!"

"I know how the card works by now…" Dithanei muttered. The man standing across the chasm couldn't hear her.

"I think that's all I can do for this turn…" Strickland said.

"Yeah, I didn't give you much of a choice there, did I?"

"Shut it brat!"

'Let's see, he has Decoy Dragon [800/200] in Defense Mode, Baby Dragon [1700/700] in Attack Mode and Rabidragon [3450/2900] in Attack Mode and he has one card face down… I have nothing… great.'

"Are you realizing there is no way for you to win?" Strickland asked gloatingly.

"I'm revising my strategy…" she said. 'Let's see if I have some luck with my next card. Ah great, Ancient Javelin Thrower… I can really use this one and I have the right Magic Card to support him.' Her heart skipped a beat in joy. "I summon Ancient Javelin Thrower (1800/100) in Attack Mode and his Special Ability allows me to instantly destroy a Level 4 Monster or lower which is in Defense Mode. I have no choice, your Decoy Dragon is a goner." Decoy Dragon was pierced by a javelin and destroyed, but that was not all; Strickland's Life Points dropped by four hundred.

"What the…"

"Did I forgot to mention half of its current Attack Points is subtracted from your Life Points?" Dithanei asked, receiving a glare from Strickland. "My bad."

"I'm still in the lead missy."

"I know, but soon you won't be anymore! I play this Magic Card, Primal Javelin. I will equip my Javelin Thrower with it, raising his Attack Points by three hundred. Now attack his Baby Dragon with your Primal Javelin!" The Javelin Thrower [2100/100], clad in a creamy tunic threw the javelin at Baby Dragon. The little orange dragon was pierced and it exploded, but Ancient Javelin Thrower had lost his Primal Javelin. "Because my Primal Javelin can only be used once my Javelin Thrower will realize he'd better go into Defense Mode, it's another effect of Primal Javelin." Dithanei said. "I end my turn."

**Strickland: 3200**

**Dithanei: 2450**

"You're lucky I only have one card in my hand missy, or you would have been a goner by now."

"No doubt." Dithanei said sarcastically.

"Let's see…" Strickland yelled as he drew a card, "…what you think of this card, the one my boss gave me! I play Orichalcos Deuteros!"

"What does that do?" Dithanei asked as a second ring with arcane marking formed around the outer layer of the Seal of Orichalcos.

"It's the same as the Seal of Orichalcos, but from now on I will receive five hundred Life Points for each monster I have on the field. Starting right now!" Strickland yelled as his Life Points went up with five hundred.

'Uh oh, he has an almost unbeatable monster and he gains Life Points each turn… I must do something quickly, but I'll have to wait for his strongest monster to be played.'

"Now I will destroy your Ancient Javelin Thrower. Rabidragon, attack!"

Rabidragon attacked again, destroying the Javelin Thrower instantly. However, because it was in Defense Mode, Dithanei's Life Points remained untouched.

'I must trust in the cards Merus gave me. With them, I can win!'

"It's your turn missy."

"I'll play Graceful Charity. It allows me to draw three cards as long as I discard two." Dithanei said. Strickland nodded and she drew three cards. 'Oh, perfect!' She discarded two cards. "Since I have three Ancient Monster cards in my Graveyard I can summon Ancient Tactician (1000/3500) without making a sacrifice. Since he has more Defense Points than your Attack Points, he will survive any attack from you!"

'Uch, I hate that Ancient Deck. I don't know anything about it and I hate it when I'm not prepared.' Strickland thought.

'If I can make it through this round, I might stand a chance against him…'

**Strickland: 3700**

**Dithanei: 2450**

"Ah! This is just the card I need!" Strickland exclaimed when he looked at the card he'd drawn. "I play Card of Sanctity, we must now draw until we have six cards in our hand."

'He's looking for his strongest monster and his grin tells me he has drawn it.'

"Time to end this pathetic little Duel, but first I will receive another five hundred Life Points." Strickland's Life Points rose to 4200. "Now I will activate Orichalcos Tritos! With this card, your Magic and Trap Cards aren't of that much use anymore."

'Those Orichalcos Cards are powerful, but no unbeatable. I know there is a card that might be able to defeat it.'

"Now I shall sacrifice my Rabidragon to call forth my ultimate beast! Strong Wind Dragon (2400/1000), arise! Now absorb the powers of my Rabidragon and submit yourself to the Seal of Orichalcos!"

'4625 Attack Points… my Tactician is a goner.'

"Now attack her Ancient Tactician!" Strickland commanded.

The large blue dragon launched its attack on the Tactician on the other side of the field. The old man in blue and red robes was destroyed and Dithanei was left defenseless.

"This is all I can do for this turn, not that it matters, you're done for anyway."

'Come on cards…' Dithanei drew. 'This isn't that helpful…' she thought as she inspected her drawn card. "I play the Ancient Slave(100/500) in Defense Mode. That's all I can do for this turn…"

**Strickland: 4200**

**Dithanei: 2450**

"Face it girl, you don't have the cards to stand up against me!"

'You're wrong… I do have the cards, but I need luck too.'

"Haha, jackpot!" Strickland exclaimed in joy as he looked at his card. "I summon Alexandrite Dragon [2500/100] in Attack Mode! This Duel is over!" Strickland yelled. "Strong Wind Dragon, attack Ancient Slave with all your might!"

The blue dragon crushed the tiny slave with one gigantic blast.

"Alexandrite Dragon, finish her off!"

"I don't think so!" Dithanei yelled.

"What? You can't stop me! You don't have any cards on the field!"

"Whenever my Life Points are attacked directly when my Ancient Tactician is in the Graveyard, ten percent of his Defense Points are subtracted from the damage I take. I will remain standing with three hundred Life Points!"

"Unbelievable…" Strickland mumbled. "She must be the most lucky person alive…"

'Pfew, I made it through another round, but my time is running out…'

"Give it up already! I have two strong dragons on the field, you're done for. Just surrender…"

"Never! I will keep dueling until the end!"

"Fine!" he sneered. "I'll end my turn."

**Strickland: 5200**

**Dithanei: 300**

'It all comes down to this turn, I mustn't give up hope. I know I can beat this guy, if I only could draw the right card…' She held her hand above her deck, ready to draw the next card. 'Come on, I believe in you!' She slowly picked the top card and slid it out of her Deck. 'Please, let this be the card I need.'

* * *

**Another cliffhanger, just because I like it that way. Will Dithanei (Beth) pull through this duel and win in the end, or will Stanford defeat her and take her soul. **

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter and now you're on this page anyway, please review.**


	23. Chapter 22

**I'm so sorry for taking so long to update... I didn't count on problems with electricity. Oh well, at least I've updated the story now. **

**Since I've got nothing left to say, I'll give you the disclaimer. Enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, I don't think I've got enough money to own it.**

* * *

Chapter 22:

* * *

'Please, let this be the card I need…' Dithanei didn't dare to look at the card. There she stood with her eyes closed, holding the card in her hand. She took a small peek after she had gathered enough courage to look at her card. It said: '_The Stone of the Old Times_'.

"I'm waiting!" Strickland yelled impatiently from across the chasm.

'What does this card do…? It has no description or whatsoever.' Dithanei though. 'Maybe this is the card I need to play now? But how can I know that if I don't even know what the card does… Wait, Merus told me to trust the cards, so maybe I should play this card and see what happens.' She nodded and placed the card into one of the Magic Card slots of her Duel Disk.

"I play The Stone of the Old Times!" she yelled.

"What does that do?" Strickland asked confusedly. His face looked rather creepy in the green light created by the Orichalcos.

"I don't know…" Dithanei answered.

A stone crashed down on the Seal, right in the middle of it. Everything shook and the Seal looked like it was shattering. Under the loud sounds of rumbling the Seal disappeared and Strickland's monsters' Attack Points dropped with five hundred.

"What happened?!" Strickland yelled in disbelief.

"It… destroyed the Seal of Orichalcos…" Dithanei slowly said. She couldn't believe what had happened.

* * *

"No!" Stanford yelled. "That… She…"

"What's wrong sir?"

"The Orichalcos as no power over that Duel anymore… How…" Stanford sighed. "She sealed her fate by doing this! The Orichalcos may not control the Duel anymore, but I control the world around it. She will pay!"

* * *

"It's time for you to lose!" Dithanei yelled, more confident about her situation now the Seal was gone. "And I will start this off by summoning the Sacred Ancient Guardian (0/0) and by playing two cards face down." She smiled, 'Merus gave me these cards, I will put all my trust in them.'

'This makes no sense… She only has 300 Life Points left and she summons a monster with zero Attack Points…' Strickland mused.

"I end my turn."

**Strickland: 5200**

**Dithanei: 300**

"Alright! First I'll attack your pathetic Guardian with my Strong Wind Dragon (4125/1000) and wipe out your remaining Life Points! This Duel is over!"

"Not quite! I activate both my face down cards!" Dithanei yelled.

Strickland frowned as Dithanei revealed her cards. He didn't know those cards, they were all new to him.

"My Mind of the Ancient Innovators will copy your monster's Attack Points and add them to my Sacred Ancient Guardian's Attack Points…" Dithanei explained.

"What?!"

"…and my Heart of Sacred Generosity will double the amount of Attack Points."

"No!"

"I do have to give up five hundred of those Attack Points so my Life Points won't be touched because of your attack. My 'pathetic' Guardian is now 7850 points strong!" Dithanei announced triumphantly with a big smile on her face.

Strickland narrowed his eyes and hissed some incoherent words under his breath. "I will play one card face down and end my turn."

'Dith, you can't lose now. You have the strongest monster of the entire game on the field.' she thought. "Okay, time for you to feel some pain! Sacred Ancient Guardian, attack his Strong Wind Dragon!"

"No! Not my dragon!" Strickland screamed as the Guardian strode forward with his spear and pierced the large blue dragon. "You'll pay for that!" he growled.

"It's not all!" Dithanei yelled. "There is still my monster's Special Ability."

"What?!"

"I can use those 4125 remaining points to destroy your Alexandrite dragon, but you won't take any damage from its destruction."

Alexandrite Dragon exploded, leaving a furious Strickland with no monsters on the field.

"That ends my turn!" Dithanei yelled triumphantly.

**Strickland: 1475**

**Dithanei: 300**

"I told you, you would pay and you will!" Strickland hissed. "I will start by playing Monster Reborn to bring back my Decoy Dragon (300/200)."

'Bringing back your stronger monsters won't help you now, Strickland…'

"Now to defeat you once and for all!" Strickland yelled. "I activate my Trap Card, Burst Breath. I will sacrifice my Decoy Dragon so I can destroy any monster that has less Defense Points than his Attack Points."

"No…" Dithanei stammered. "I-I thought I'd won for sure…"

"Since your Guardian has no Defense Points… he is destroyed! You're Life Points are defenseless. You should have played some face down cards." Strickland smirked. "Now I will summon the dragon that will bring you down, Ancient Dragon! Doesn't it fit properly with your Ancient Deck?" Strickland joked. Ancient Dragon (1400/1300), a light brown dragon looked at Dithanei with a pair of hungry eyes. "Ancient Dragon, attack her Life Points directly! Bring me victory!"

Ancient Dragon blasted Dithanei's Life Points to zero.

"I win once again!" Strickland yelled.

"Indeed you do Strickland and she has lost something more valuable than her soul." Stanford voice sounded through the sky. "You may disrupted the work of the Orichalcos little girl, but I control this entire world and I have enough power to influence that pillar you're standing on. Since you lost a price will be paid, since you can't give me your soul… I will take your life! Besides, I know of your connection to my greatest enemy. He will be so sad to hear his betrothed is dead… but I will enjoy to see him after he has heard the news."

With that, Dithanei's pillar started to shake, until it collapsed. She fell down, into the chasm, falling on the slope of the pillar, rolling downwards into the dark depths.

* * *

"You have progressed a lot, my pupil." Marcus smiled.

"Thank you," Merus bowed curtly and waved his mentor and servant off. "You're done for tonight. You can return to your home."

"Will you be alright my lord?" Marcus asked. He always asked, not because he was worried about his master, but to be polite.

"Yes Marcus," Merus answered, "now get out of here."

Marcus walked towards the doors that lead him to the familiar winding staircase. After walking up the stairs in complete darkness he stepped into the moonlight and fresh air after a few hours of being underwater.

"Wow, you're home early…" Marcus's wife said when he walked inside his house. "Did Lord Merus give you the night off?"

"What do you mean, I was gone for at least two hours." Marcus said confused.

"More like fifteen minutes," his wife said with a kind smile.

'Strange…' Marcus thought. 'Maybe something is wrong after all.'

He was shocked back into reality by earsplitting screams. Marcus ran outside, looking at the small island he came from, the doorway to Merus's sanctuary. He saw the origin of the horrifying screams. A large blue phoenix had risen from the small island, it looked like it was crying or going through a lot of pain.

"Lord Merus!" Marcus exclaimed. He started to run towards the land bridge that connected the main island to the smaller one. As he got closer to the small building that was home to the winding staircase, the heat became almost unbearable. Marcus didn't stop however and ran down the stairs as fast as he could. He almost tripped because of the darkness, but he kept going.

He slammed the doors open and ran through the water to see his master sitting in the middle of the pool. Merus looked furious, tears ran down on his face, dripping into the water below him. The water boiled around him, his fist were clenched. He screamed like a madman, like he was being killed.

Marcus stood pinned to the ground. Never had he seen his master like this, no there was one time he was like this, but then he was younger and less frightening. He was like this when the incident with his father and grandfather had happened. Marcus had no idea what to do, he didn't dare to get near his master.

It went on like this for a few minutes. Marcus felt he had to do something, so he slowly started to approach his master. Eventually he was close enough to pull him into a fatherly hug, something which seemed to calm Merus down a bit. Marcus couldn't help but to smile a bit, Merus was somewhat the same as his own son, the only difference between them would be in age.

They sat like that for what seemed like ten minutes, until Merus forced Marcus to let go of him. Merus face was filled with rage, but Marcus didn't understand why.

"My lord, what's wrong?" he asked. He was anxious to know what had caused this sudden outrage.

"He killed her Marcus, he killed Dithanei!"

* * *

Stanford sat smirking in front of his desk. He was such a genius, he struck a blow at the heart of his nemesis. He had enough knowledge about the little tribe of his archenemy to know what a 'pure-blooded' was. He knew about some of their ancient customs and thus he knew of an established relationship between the girl he had killed, since it was him who let the pillar collapse, and his rival. His plan was even working better than he thought it would, he was growing stronger with every second passing. Strickland stood before him, his grin was as malicious as his boss.

"Strickland, you've done a great job. I like how you're much more useful when you're a pathetic mind slave."

Strickland didn't answer, he only stood, emotionlessly, in front of his boss.

"You can get some rest now, I'll save your talents for the end stages of my little game."

Strickland nodded and made his way to another door, one that would lead him to a bedroom.

'I think my good friend will pay attention from now on,' Strickland smirked. 'Losing someone so close to him must have shaken him a little. I think he'll be enraged and will start being rash, something which gives me an even greater advantage when I'm powerful enough to…'

He stopped thinking about his plan when he saw Clifford getting ready for his duel.

'This will be an interesting one, I wonder if Clifford will make it. If not I get his soul, if so I will get an even stronger one in return!'

* * *

Marcus sat against the wall, near the door leading to Merus's chambers. He looked at his master, a pile of bitterness sitting in front of that huge stone. Marcus wasn't allowed to go near it, he always had to walk around it in a large circle. Merus would sense it whenever someone got too close to it and it would anger him; punishment would follow. As far as Marcus knew, only Diocles was allowed to get closer, but not as close as Merus. Touching it was out of the question, Merus warned him every time when he got close. He said the stone would drain your life, unless you had enough power to stop it. Even Merus seemed afraid of it and Marcus never saw him laying a hand on the stone. Merus did talk to it, it was kind of creepy. Merus would act like the stone was talking back to him, but stones don't talk.

"What will you do now, my lord?" Marcus decided to ask after hours of silence.

His master didn't look away, he sat there as in a trance. He was calm and composed now, unlike how he was when Marcus found him this night.

"What do you think I'll do, Marcus? I will stop everything that has to do with my plan and thus I'll let Dithanei's death be in vain."

He sounded hollow, a bit like a robot, but very sarcastic. Marcus decided it was best not to answer his master, so he kept silent.

"He will pay Marcus…"

Now he sounded shakily, a bit hoarse.

"…I will avenge not only my father and grandfather, but also Dithanei. He will burn, he will regret the deeds he committed."

Marcus sighed, it seemed like everything that once was good in the young boy had perished.

"You're witnessing the end of the pure-blooded Marcus."

Marcus stood up and wanted to walk over to his master.

"Leave Marcus, I have a lot of things on my hands now and I've lost enough time already."

Marcus wanted to refuse, but decided against it. Merus was emotionally unstable and refusing his orders now, wouldn't turn out well. Marcus shuddered at the thought of Lucius, his 'accident' occurred not too long ago. And then there was Brutus, who stood up against lord Merus. Although Brutus's death was of his own doing, it did show Merus's ruthlessness. Marcus bowed and left the sanctuary.

"Herby doesn't know, dear…" Merus whispered to the stone. "He doesn't know of my influence in his sick game. I still have a few pawns left on the board. It's no checkmate yet." He waited. "No, no dear, not the Millennium Items, that's too much of a risk. I have power over Ryou and his yami, they will be of great use from now on. How you ask? Well, I can force Herby to stop this all at once, by defeating him in a Duel. His plan has one major flaw you see… He can't lose, if he does his soul will be taken. He may think he can control the Orichalcos, but he will see he doesn't stand a chance in my presence. With the right tools, every plan will be successful."

* * *

**Before someone starts to ask if Dithanei/Beth is really dead: Yes she is.**

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please review.**


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